President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he had directed the Pentagon to provide troops to “protect” Portland, Oregon, from Antifa, adding that he was authorizing “full force, if necessary.”
The announcement comes less than a week after Trump officially designated Antifa as a domestic terror group, and follows promises from the Trump Administration to carry out a broad crackdown on leftwing groups in the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“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 in a post on Truth Social on Saturday morning.
“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” he added.
Read more: The Danger of Trump’s Crackdown on Blue Cities
Trump has made unprecedented use of the U.S. military for domestic aims in his second term, raising concerns that it may be used to stifle dissent against his unpopular government.
In June, Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to quell immigration protests, a move that was later deemed illegal by a federal judge. Then in August, he deployed the National Guard and federal agencies to Washington, D.C., and federalized the police force, ostensibly to combat crime, even though crime has been falling in recent years.
Read more: What It Means for Trump to Label Antifa a ‘Major Terrorist Organization’
Trump has gone further since then, threatening to deploy the military to several more Democratic-run cities in retaliation for criticism from local leaders, justifying the deployments based on his own perception of crime in those cities.
A throwback to 2020
Trump’s preoccupation with Portland, Oregon, dates back to his first term.
Portland has been a center of leftwing protest for decades, and it became a focal point of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when Trump was president.
Trump sent federal forces to Portland in response to those protests. Officers from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Protective Service, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were deployed in the city to protect federal buildings from protesters, against the wishes of local leaders.
At the time, Oregon Governor Kate Brown accused the Trump Administration of using Portland as a political “photo opportunity” and said the deployment “inflamed” rather than calmed the situation.
In recent months, regular protests have taken place outside the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the city. The Department of Homeland Security has blamed “Antifa-affiliated rioters” for the protests and documented what it has described as “Antifa violence” in a press release a day before Trump’s announcement.
One incident highlighted by the DHS describes the arrest of a protester in June for shining a laser pen at an ICE officer. Another protester was arrested the same day for picking up a smoke grenade thrown by police and throwing it back at federal officers, “striking one in the forearm and abdomen.” In the final incident described by DHS, a person was arrested while “attempting to damage equipment” at the ICE facility in the city; when DHS officers tried to arrest the suspect, they allegedly “grabbed an officer in the genitals, and kicked officers in the groin and legs.” The DHS also says “Antifa” reveals the personal information of ICE agents.
Ron Wyden, a Democratic Senator for Oregon, accused Trump of trying to incite violence in the city.
“Trump is launching an authoritarian takeover of Portland hoping to provoke conflict in my hometown,” he wrote on X. “I urge Oregonians to reject Trump’s attempt to incite violence in what we know is a vibrant and peaceful city. I will do everything in my power to protect the people in our state.”
Antifa is now a ‘domestic terror group’
Trump declared Antifa a domestic terror organization in a new White House Executive Order signed Monday evening.
The order describes the group as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.”
Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a largely decentralized movement that lacks a defined leadership. Generally, Antifa describes those in opposition to fascism and far-right neo-Nazi ideologies, who find their roots in the 20th-century resistance movement to fascism in Europe.
Trump’s Executive Order directs government agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations” performed by “Antifa.”
But the U.S. has no domestic terror law on the books, and the order appears sufficiently broad that it could be used to target a wide range of protest movements. It is unclear how the order will be used in practice due to Antifa’s indistinct definition and lack of structure.
It comes as Trump has ordered a crackdown on left-wing groups in response to the murder of Kirk, despite the motives of the suspect in his murder, Tyler Robinson, not yet being clear.
Critics say Trump’s executive order lacks a basis in law and could infringe on citizens’ First Amendment rights to protest and dissent.
Patrick G. Eddington, senior fellow at libertarian think tank Cato Institute, writes that Trump’s executive order is “idiotic on multiple levels.”
“The notion that an idea can be designated an organization is one,” he says. “The fact that there’s no constitutional provision or statute granting any president the power to designate a domestic civil society organization a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ is another.”
— Additional reporting by Rebecca Schneid
