Police logs from Portland before Donald Trump sent in troops show tiny “low-energy” protests outside its ICE site—contradicting the president’s claim of a city “under siege.”
Daily reports—filed in federal court and reported by the Wall Street Journal—detail night after night of almost nothing happening, with 10 to 20 protesters and little police action.
In Portland, on Sept. 1, Labor Day, around 125 people marched to the ICE facility with “little to no energy,” and the Federal Protective Service on scene “was not concerned,” according to the logs, reviewed by the Journal.
One sergeant wrote on Sept. 5: “Saw 8 people out front and couldn’t even get one of them to flip me the bird.”
On Sept. 24, the logs show there were “no assaults, no calls for service”—yet that didn’t stop Trump from escalating things three days later.
Wall Street Journal
DHS disputed the Journal’s narrative. “Any attempt by the Wall Street Journal to downplay the safety of America’s law enforcement officers…is disgraceful and disgusting,” spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, arguing selected FPS memos “do not paint the full picture.”
However, the White House has spent the past months pushing an exaggerated messaging blitz about a country facing a significant crime wave from “Antifa” and “illegal aliens.”
This has included a slick promo video pushed online by Trump claiming to show “chaos” in Chicago, which the Daily Beast exposed on Thursday as actually having been filmed in Florida six months ago.
Back in Portland, on Sept. 27, the president posted to Truth Social that he was “directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops” to protect the “war-ravaged” city.
Crowds swelled only after Trump’s directive.
On Sept. 28, roughly 200 protesters gathered, leading to sporadic arrests and pepper spray deployments, according to on-the-ground reporting and police summaries cited by the Journal.
The City of Portland has accused federal officers of excessive force at the site. Oregon officials, including Gov. Tina Kotek, say the most serious flare-ups have involved counter-protesters and that routine policing was working before the president’s order.
In court, a Trump-appointed judge balked at Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard. On Oct. 4, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut granted a temporary restraining order blocking troop deployment, writing that the situation “was simply untethered to the facts,” and could be handled by regular law enforcement.
This has since been partially narrowed on appeal, and federalization may proceed, although a bar on actual deployment remains in place while arguments continue.
However, Portland has become the White House’s test case for a broader push to use troops around ICE facilities.
The administration has pushed similar justifications in Illinois, where Gov. J.B. Pritzker hit back at Trump’s suggestions he should be in prison, saying, “Come and get me.”
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and the White House for comment.
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