President Donald Trump point to a G20 Miami 2026 poster as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon / AP
President Donald Trump on Friday said Portland could be one of the next cities he’ll target with National Guard troops.
When asked at a press briefing if he’d decided which city he would deploy troops to next, the president first said that, while he has made a decision, he is not prepared to share his plans.
Then he referenced a TV report he saw Thursday about ongoing protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Portland.
“Portland, it’s unbelievable what’s going on in Portland. The destruction of the city. I’m going to look at it now,” Trump said, in a likely reference to a recent report on Fox News.
That story showed the resident of an apartment near the ICE building complaining about lost sleep and frustration due to noisy protests. It also claimed that Portland police are refusing to respond to assaults associated with those protests.
“We’ll be able to stop that very easily,” Trump said.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson issued a statement Friday afternoon saying Portland does not need that federal intervention.
Oregon’s largest city is just the latest to come up as a potential site for National Guard deployment. This week, Trump also threatened to send the guard to Baltimore, Chicago and New Orleans.
The president has already deployed National Guard troops to two other U.S. cities, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
In Los Angeles, the guard was also joined by U.S. Marines in early June under orders by Trump to subdue protests over immigration raids there. About 300 National Guard troops remain in L.A., according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, but a federal judge on Tuesday ruled the military deployment is illegal.
In Washington, where the president has more authority over law enforcement, more than 2,200 National Guard troops were deployed last month to address crime. The move came after two teens carjacked a former Department of Government Efficiency Staffer. Those troops are still on the streets.
An analysis by NPR on Friday reported that 80% of charges in local courts as a result of arrests by troops in Washington were misdemeanor offenses, warrants or dropped altogether.
Trump said that Portland was not originally on his list, but the Thursday report on anti-ICE protests there brought his eye back to a city that he also targeted during his first term as president.
During lengthy protests in 2020, the president declared Portland an “anarchist jurisdiction,” and Department of Homeland Security officers clashed with protesters in the streets, filled neighborhoods with tear gas and, at times, pulled people off the street into unmarked vans. Then-Gov. Kate Brown called it a “blatant abuse of power.”
On Friday, Trump alleged without citing evidence that the people who have recently been protesting outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building are paid agitators.
Opponents to the president’s immigration policies have regularly demonstrated there, at times spraying the building with graffiti and shouting insults at officials.
Department of Homeland Security officers deploy crowd control munitions, including tear gas, at a demonstration outside the ICE building on June 14, 2025.
Conrad Wilson / OPB
In response, federal officers have used tear gas and crowd control weapons on demonstrators. Some nights have seen arrests, though infrequently. The gated ICE building has been boarded up with plywood since the spring.
The president said Friday “they are walking in, throwing smoke bombs” — possibly a reference to the tear gas ICE officials have used to try to disperse protesters.
Related: Oregon lawmakers approve measure to limit National Guard deployment by the federal government
In his response to Trump’s comments, Mayor Wilson painted a different picture of protests.
“We are proud that Portland police have successfully protected freedom of expression while addressing occasional violence and property destruction that takes place during protests at the ICE facility in Portland,” Wilson said.
“We anticipate that the site, and the half-block surrounding it, will continue to be a focus of protests. Portland will continue to rise to the moment as a proud sanctuary city, taking legal action to stand up for our community and our rights.”
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield issued a statement saying his office has been preparing with a “multistate AG coalition” since Trump took office in case a legal response to federal overreach is needed.
“The president may have a lot of power, but he has to stay in his lane,” Rayfield wrote, “and if he doesn’t, we’ll hold him accountable.”
Trump’s comments come less than two weeks after U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former Happy Valley mayor and one-term congresswoman, said she hopes the administration cracks down on Portland.
Trump’s remarks suggested she could get that wish.
“If we go to Portland, we’re going to wipe them out, they’re going to be gone,” he said. “They’ve ruined that city. … What they’ve done to that place, it’s like living in hell.”
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