President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered the National Guard to leave three U.S. cities, including Portland.
In a social media post that railed against Democrat mayors and governors of left-leaning cities, Trump left the door open to future federal intervention.
“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!” Trump continued.
Trump on Sept. 27 authorized sending federal troops to Oregon to protect what he described as “War ravaged Portland.” The president’s declaration touched off months of loud but largely nonviolent protests between demonstrators and federal officers tasked with protecting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland.
Although the president said Wednesday he was “removing” the National Guard from Portland and attributed their presence to a drop in crime in the city, the only reported instance of members of the Oregon National Guard at the Portland ICE facility occurred on one day in October.
In that episode, Oregon National Guard troops were on the ground at the South Portland building on Oct. 4 hours after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order that barred the federal deployment of state troops to the city, as was revealed over the course of a court case to determine the legality of National Guard mobilizations to Portland.
Protests outside the ICE facility have dissipated as rainy winter weather has set in.
Trump’s announcement comes a week after the U.S. Supreme Court barred the president from deploying National Guard troops to Chicago to support the administration’s immigration crackdown. The ruling put the legality of the administration’s National Guard deployment in other U.S. cities in question.
Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, a federal judge in November issued a permanent injunction barring the president from deploying National Guard troops from any state to Oregon, finding Trump had exceeded his authority by sending troops to Portland.
–Maxine Bernstein and Fedor Zarkhin contributed to this article
This is a breaking news story and may be updated
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