Military: Trump announces military operation in further US city

US President Donald Trump ordered the military to the city of Portland in the state of Oregon due to alleged threats from “domestic terrorists”. Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, recently officially “Minister of War”, should provide as many soldiers as necessary to protect the city and to defend institutions of the immigration authority ICE against Antifa supporters and “other domestic terrorists”, he wrote on Truth Social.

The Republican Trump had recently classified the Antifa movement as a terrorist organization-and announced investigations. In the absence of organizational structures of the loose movement, however, it remained unclear how exactly he wanted to implement it.

With a view to the deployment of soldiers in Portland, Trump now signaled that he gave the military far -reaching powers to the use of violence – but initially remained unclear what exactly that comprises. Trump also gave no information on which military units should be used when.

Senator from Oregon criticizes “authoritarian takeover of Portland”

The Democratic Governor of the State of the State of Oregon, Tina Kotek, wrote on X that her office was turning to the White House and the Ministry of Homeland Protection for further information. The state was not taught about the reason or purpose of a military operation, it criticized. “There is no danger to national security in Portland.”

The criticism of the Democratic US senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden, fell even more sharply: “Trump starts an authoritarian takeover of Portland in the hope of provoking a conflict in my hometown,” he complained to X. “I urgently asked the residents of Oregons to reject Trump’s attempt to stir up violence in a city that is-as we know-alive.”

Portland is part of cities that refuse cooperation with ICE

Portland has more than 600,000 inhabitants and describes itself as “Sanctuary City”. The term is used for cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE in different ways.

Last week, the city had announced that it wanted to investigate whether an ICE facility in Portland violated regulations. For example, people may have been held overnight or more than twelve hours – although that was not allowed.

The Ministry of Homeland Protection in turn mentioned in a message about violence practiced by Antifa supporters on Friday rioters in Portland, which would have attacked an ICE facility there several times. It listed several cases that are said to have happened in June.

According to US media, there were some protests around an ICE facility in the city that was directed against Trump’s controversial immigration policy. Most demonstrations were peaceful, but some would also have ended by using tear gas and the facility was closed for several days in summer, reported the CNN broadcaster.

Not the first soldier’s use in US cities

The US President had sent soldiers to Los Angeles months ago. There, too, the mobilization of the National Guard in June was justified, among other things, with alleged chaos and resistance to civil servants from the immigration authority ICE, the raids of which trigger protests by the population more often.

The US President also sent national guards to Washington weeks ago-and justified this with supposedly sprawling crime in the US capital. Critics warn that the president uses the cities as an experiment field for an authoritarian government style.

Trump also announced a soldier’s deployment in the city of Memphis, which was also re-established in the US state of Tennessee. Again and again he threatened to use the national guard in Chicago. Both the democratic mayor there and the democratic governor of the state of Illinois rejected this.