President Donald Trump entered into an insane back and forth with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek over his deployment of National Guard troops to the state’s largest city.
More than anything, the messages, obtained by local outlet KATU, reveal the president does, in fact, text in precisely the same manner he posts on Truth Social.
“Governor: The ICE Facility in Portland was attacked again last night. In fact, it, and other Federal Buildings, are being attacked on a nightly basis. We can’t have this,” reads one message he sent to Kotek on Sunday. “Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Kotek, a Democrat, appears to have stood her ground, telling the president that he broke an earlier promise of liaising with her before taking further action in the state.
“I notified you to get things in order, and you didn’t. They attacked our ICE Patriots last night, and at other times. If you get your State in order, we don’t come in, but everyone knows that Portland has been an unmitigated disaster for years,” he replied, according to KATU. “I wont let that happen in America! President DJT.”
The texts themselves seem to have actually been typed out by White House aide Natalie Harp, a former One America News Network anchor who joined Trump’s team in 2022. Her work for the president has earned Harp, 34, the nickname “The Human Printer,” on account of her following him around with a portable printer to spare him looking at screens.
Over the past week, Trump has repeatedly raged against what he describes as “domestic terrorists” in Oregon’s largest city, mobilizing 200 National Guard troops to protect Immigration and Customer Enforcement facilities in Portland from “ANTIFA,” using “Full Force, if necessary.”
The target of his ire would appear to be the nightly protests staged outside ICE buildings in Portland since June, which local police say have been “largely sedate” and in any case “limited to fewer than thirty participants” at any given time.
Kotek and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield have now filed a lawsuit alleging the deployment is based on exaggerated claims, describing Trump’s “war ravaged” characterization of the city as “pure fiction.”
The president has already deployed federal agents and military personnel to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, with more boots promised on the ground in Memphis as part of a wider crusade against what he says, without providing evidence, is an ongoing crime wave in Democrat-controlled cities.
Federal statistics show violent crime has in fact broadly been in decline across the country since the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and the latest polls show almost 60 percent of voters are opposed to the Trump administration’s use of federal troops in urban areas.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Kotek’s office for further comment on the exchange.
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