U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attend a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, Ore. — President Donald Trump said Saturday morning he will send troops to Portland, attempting an unprecedented use of U.S. military forces within the country.
In a brief post to his social media platform, Trump said he would have Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth order troops deployed to Oregon’s largest city.
Trump did not specify what legal justification he had to do so, what military branch would be used or other key details. The troops would be used to defend U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities from “domestic terrorists,” he said.
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
A 19th-century law, the Posse Comitatus Act, generally forbids military members from conducting domestic law enforcement. Constitutional experts say the ideas was one of the nation’s founding principles.
Messages for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s office and the Defense Department were not immediately returned Saturday morning.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Democrat whose district includes much of Portland, blasted the announcement as “an egregious abuse of power and a betrayal of our most basic American values.”
“Authoritarians rely on fear to divide us. Portland will not give them that,” she wrote. “We will not be intimidated. We have prepared for this moment since Trump first took office, and we will meet it with every tool available to us: litigation, legislation, and the power of peaceful public pressure.”
Alex Baumhardt of the Oregon Capital Chronicle contributed to this report.