Trump threatens to deploy National Guard troops in Portland

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump said he’ll send the National Guard to Portland to quell protests if the situation doesn’t improve by Friday.

A day after an apparent agreement was reached between Oregon Governor Kate Brown and the Department of Homeland Security regarding federal officers stationed in Portland was announced, the president was asked if local police could handle the situation without help. He had the following reply:

“So our people have done, Homeland Security, have done a fantastic job. They went to Oregon a little more than a week ago. The place was a mess. The city, Portland, was just a disaster. You see it, and a lot of people weren’t reporting it right. They tried to pretend it was a protest as opposed to anarchists and agitators. You understand what I’m saying. It’s a mess. They went there a short while ago and they saved a federal courthouse that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and they put a ring around the courthouse and they saved it. But the group that’s there is basically meant to save buildings and they were very strong, very powerful, and they didn’t come out too often from this cacoon that they built in order to save these very expensive, valuable and psychologically important buildings. Right? Like courthouses.

“The governor and the mayor, we’ve been dealing with ‘em, and we think they don’t know what they’re doing. Because this should not have been going on for 60 days. It’s not our job unless in case of emergency, which I consider now to be an emergency, it’s not our job to go in and clean out the cities. It’s supposed to be done by local law enforcement. Yesterday the governor worked a deal where they’ll do it. We’ll stand by, they’ll do it, and that’s good, all very good. But she didn’t report it that way. What she reported was totally different. She said, ‘I think Trump wants to take over the country.’ It’s crazy.

“So what happened is, our people are staying there to see whether they can do it today and tomorrow. And if they don’t do it, we will send in the National Guard and we’ll take care of it. And we’re telling right now, these protesters, many should be arrested, ‘cause these are professional agitators, these are professional anarchists. These are people that hate our country. We’re telling them right now that we’re coming in very soon, the National Guard, a lot of people. A lot of very tough people. And these are not people that just have to guard the courthouse and save it. These are people that are allowed to go forward and do what they have to do. And I think that makes the governor’s job and the mayor’s job a lot easier. So they’re working today and probably tomorrow to clean out this beehive of… of terrorists. And if they do it, I’m going to be very happy. And then slowly we can start to leave the city. If they don’t do it we’ll be sending in the National Guard.”

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