Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek spoke directly with President Donald Trump on Saturday, pushing back against his directive to send federal troops to Portland.
“I have been abundantly clear that Portland and the state of Oregon believe in the rule of law and we can manage our own local public safety needs,” Kotek told reporters at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland on Saturday afternoon.
“There is no insurrection, there is no threat to national security, and there is no need for military troops in our major city.”
Kotek said she was alerted to the president’s directive, the same as everyone else, seeing it on social media early Saturday.
She reached out to the president and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Christie Noemb, stressing that federal troops aren’t needed in the Rose City.
“Military service members should be dedicated to real emergencies,” she told reporters. “For the members of the Oregon National Guard, their mission is to stand up and protect Oregonians, and they will do that every day, but they are not needed in the city. They are not needed here.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson echoed Kotek’s calls for troops to stand down.
“President Trump has directed ‘all necessary troops’ to Portland. Let me be clear: the number of necessary troops here is zero,” Wilson said.
Trump has said for weeks he needs to deploy troops to Portland in order to quell what the president called a violent war zone.
The truth, Kotek said, is very different.
“Our city is not the place that people think it is from years ago,” Kotek said. “Business is thriving, people are coming downtown, they are enjoying this community. We have students ready to go see ‘The Lion King’ tonight at the Keller Auditorium. People are going to the Timbers match, people are downtown shopping … Portland is doing just fine.”
It’s not yet clear how many federal troops Trump plans to send to Portland, when they may arrive, or what their mission would be. Kotek said that Trump does not have the authority to deploy federal troops on state soil and said she is working with Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield on a possible response.
“Oregon is our home,” Kotek stressed. “It is not a military target.”
In 2020, Oregon saw large nightly protests outside federal buildings for weeks as federal troops clashed with protestors following the death of George Floyd. Wilson said images of those violent protests have colored national coverage of the city, lending misguided fears that Portland is an unlawful place to live.
Protests are common at the ICE facility in Southwest Portland, but are mostly small, peaceful and do not rise to the level that requires federal intervention, Wilson stressed.
Portland has a long history of protesting, and he said the city has come a long way since it made headlines in 2020.
“We’ve had hard conversations and done important work,” since 2020 Wilson said. If the federal government wants to lend support to Portland, Wilson said, there are plenty of ways it can do so more effectively. “Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers to Portland, instead of a short, expensive and fruitless show of force,” Wilson said.
Wilson and Kotek said protestors should refrain from violent protests in the wake of Trump’s order, urging Oregonians not to “take the bait.”
“Let’s not respond to what the president is trying to do,” Kotek said. “We have to raise our voices, absolutely, peacefully, to the things we believe in,” but Kotek said that property damage and violent reaction to the president’s order would exacerbate things.
“If you want to stand in opposition to the Trump administration, I would ask that you lean into your community, helping people, making things better here. Because that’s who we are as Oregonians.”
