AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
President Trump says he's ordered the deployment of troops to Portland, Oregon, and that he's authorized them to use, quote, "full force" to curb protests outside of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. It's the latest instance of Trump deploying the military to various cities that he says are plagued with crime. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf has been following all this and joins us now. Welcome, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
RASCOE: So let's start with this latest announcement. What can you tell us about it?
LONSDORF: Well, you know, like many of Trump's announcements, it started with a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. He called Portland, Oregon, quote, "war ravaged" - which, to be very clear, is not the case on the ground there - and said he had authorized the Pentagon to provide all necessary troops.
It was unclear from that post what troops he meant. NPR reached out to the Pentagon for clarity, and a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly said the Pentagon had not issued a deployment order for Portland and that it only learned of Trump's request from the media. That official also said it would be likely that National Guard troops would be used. Later, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said it was, quote, "ready to mobilize."
RASCOE: And what's been the reaction from officials in Oregon?
LONSDORF: Both the governor of Oregon and the mayor of Portland dispute Trump's claims that the city is unsafe or in need of troops and have been urging residents to remain peaceful. The governor has made it clear that she is not authorizing the use of Oregon's National Guard. In a press conference yesterday, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the necessary troops needed for the city is zero.
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KEITH WILSON: This is an American city. We do not need any intervention. This is not a military target.
LONSDORF: All of this comes after there were reports of a ramp-up of federal officers at an ICE facility in Portland on Friday, which Mayor Wilson called a show of force and told residents to remain calm and not react.
RASCOE: Trump has been making these kinds of threats against a variety of cities for months now.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
RASCOE: Can you remind us of that larger picture?
LONSDORF: Yeah, well, here in D.C., where Trump has federal control, more than 2,000 National Guard troops from a variety of states have been deployed for more than a month in what Trump has said is an effort to crack down on crime. Back in June, Trump federalized California's National Guard against Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes and deployed them along with the Marines to LA to quell protests against ICE deportations there. That sounds similar to what could happen in Portland.
And then there are a handful of cities that Trump has threatened - about a dozen at this point, all Democratically-led cities - places like Chicago, where he also used the war metaphor but has yet to actually send troops. We're also watching Memphis, Tennessee. Trump authorized the use of the National Guard there as part of a similar crackdown, along with other federal agents who are all expected to start arriving as early as this week.
And I just want to note, you know, the National Guard is not trained for community policing or to make arrests. That's not how they're generally used. Here in D.C., they've mainly been patrolling federal property and beautifying city parks.
RASCOE: Each of the places you've mentioned is a little bit different, but is there a larger pattern that we're starting to see?
LONSDORF: Yeah, Trump says these National Guard deployments are to deal with crime, but he also has been conflating them with immigration and deportations. We've seen that here in D.C., for example, where ICE agents moved in along with the National Guard deployment and started detaining people at high rates.
Legal experts have also told me that another part of this that has them worried is the normalization of troops sometimes armed on U.S. streets even if the deployment is largely performative. You know, the U.S. has a long history of limiting the role of the military domestically, and experts say these kinds of continued threats and deployments challenge laws that are centuries old and central to the ideas that the U.S. was founded on.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf. Thank you, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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