PortlandOregon – to travel around the city of Rose on Saturday Donald Trump He announced that he would deploy armed federal troops here, licensed to kill, was for white a metropolis bathed by the sun that buzzed with the summer or summer that is channeled.
The kayaks slid towards the Willamette River; Sun light shone through pampering glasses in outdoor coffees; The teenagers made sure of a shaded oak attraction park; Club Kids in Black denim in tail for a show that you are not great enough to know. The Only Sign of Anything Vaguelly Militant Were The Pine-Green Throngs of the Timbers Army-The Boisrous fans of the local Major League Soccer Franchise-Marsschaing for a Match Against FC Dallas, ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ON (ONShhh, don’t tell Stephen Miller) Hispanic heritage night.
In mail In Truth Social that morning, Trump moved to Kindle’s conflict in this proudly progressive American city. It’s a hey place Havoc Once before, Beta tests in 2020 much of the authoritarian play book that has recently directed in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and has threatened to unleash in Memphis, Chicago and other liberal strengths.
Trump announced that he was addressing his “Secretary of War”, Pete Hegseeth, to display “all the necessary troops” to counteract an assumption “siege” of Antifa in the city of Rose. The president said that his threat of violence sponsored by the State was for the greater good. To “protect war, devastate Portland” from “domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote, “he would authorize all his strength, if necessary.”
We are living through the cold era of the United States Civil War. But some would like hotter. Trump has identified broad stripes from the United States as belonging to “Enemy inside. “And the president appears anxious to play the role of accelerationist, surpassing the nation towards the break, mobilizing the armed federal forces inwards, to point to the disadvantaged minorities and Ideological enemies.
In truth, Portland is not devastated by anything, separated from a mysterious graffiti artist who continues to stagnate the words “cheese cheese” (Spanish for “cheese cheese”) throughout the city. This is a city of vibrant neighborhoods, a world -class food scene and a reserve of rarity that you cannot pretend. Like other centers on the west coast, Portland has challenges: lack of housing, drugs and vacancious offices that remind me. But the city’s violent crime rate is in free fall, with Murders Less than 51 percent to the first half or 2025. Thanks to artists, larpers and bohemian stores, dead shopping centers are Returning to life. Only a city center once again is seeing the Best pedestrian traffic From pandemia.
However, for the 47th President, Portland is less a real place to fight and fight than a blank canvas in which to project fever dreams of urban violence that must be with an iron fist. It’s a Trial terrain For Trump’s darkest ambitions, the type of place, apparently, would not mind seeing some Americans receive a shot, for the same troops that swore an oath to protect them.
As I have a leg information This summer, there is a small conflict zone in Portland. It focuses on a single closed entrance: the entrance to the installation of local ice to the south of the center, which has been the site of rolling protests since June. Inconditioned between old tram tracks and interstatal 5, the federal installation occupies a strange and trapezoidal plot, and resembles a minimum security prison. Its main entrance crosses a sidewalk in the ramp city, creating a strangulation point for traffic agents.
Duration of the day, the manifestations here are usually calm. After dusk, it is more likely to witness a cat and mouse conflict between committed anti-SCEM protesters and even more committed federal police. This show can become brutal, with protesters Approached to the groundshot with pepper balls, or guessed to submission in Olube or green smoke.
There has been a Series of judgments Here for alleged crimes against federal officers by agitators. But the optics of violence has remained remarkable with federal agents with masks in gas masks and body armor that broke into local streets, bowling on protesters and show the neighboring hood with the chemical verification of Chamical No-Narman. Forced to flee Your campus for a long time.
However, when I stopped on my bicycle on Saturday afternoon, without a Steas helmet, a bulletproof vest or simply a press badge, this site was looking for Pacific and remarkable spiffy. The ice building itself had fresh paint that covered much of the graffiti full of anger that I had seen in previous weeks. The plywood sheets, previously used to arm the second and third floor windows, also removed their legs.
Yes, a few graffiti sacrificed a dose of threat: “Molotovs melted the ice,” one read. But others were softer: “Anifa = anti -fascist”, a message destined for interior agents spelling in the bow of rainbow. “What does that do?” Only the advanced position for the most committed protesters had been relocated to the block.
In short, the atmosphere in front of the building was more market on Saturday than the civil struggle. A man in a Yellow chicken suit It was close to the entrance road, an American flag (decorated with hearts instead of stars) covered around his neck. It is a hero a cardboard sign that reads: “Portland will survive it.” Only Woman with a Panama hat He stopped silently on the other side of the street with a sleeveless shirt and Doc Martens, a pancardo hung around his neck by an iris rainbow that said: “Fat the federals!” The count of local television camera teams on the scene, to record the non -deceived, rival the real protesters.
A single Federal Police opened the high metal entrance door to avoid a couple of protesters that support signs that denigrate the masculinity of the agents, which include: “Ice is a small cock energy. Micro.” Only when this officer retired behind the door, a woman held a sign that said “fascism is not American” raised the level of decibel, demanding if this man had seen viral videos of children being torn by spouses. “If you are against, why are you helping them?” She shouted. “Defend something! Where are your values? This is not the country in which I grew up!”
Not far, backed by one of the iconic bridges of the city, Oregon’s civic leaders presented a united face against the deployment of Trump’s troops. Keith Wilson, Modern Mayor of Portland, spoke directly with the president: “The number of troops needed is zero in Portland.” Tina Kotek, Oregon Democrat Governor, told journalists that he had been talking to Trump directly and insisted: “We have this. We are fine. We are fine.” The governor added that any deployment of federal troops “violates our right to govern us.”
But the wheels were already moving. Hegseeth signed an order Sunday seeking to federalize 200 members of the State National Guard. For that same, the State responded with a Lawsuit – Similar to the litigation brought in California after the federal in Los Angeles, seeking that the order be declared “obviously unalk”, among other alleged defects, the deployment is not the support of the Gonernor and the Gonernor.
“Far from public security promotion,” says the demand, the “provocative and arbitrary actions of the president threaten to undermine public security by promising a public protest.” The litigation affirms that the “basic declared to federalize” the guard is “pretextual and without foundation” -arguing that “the protests of the ease of ice generally have a small leg and are often quiet.” The litigation suggests that Trump’s sad vision about Portland’s current protest climate had been deformed by a September Fox News segment that repeated the old images of the tumultuous Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
For now, Portland is in a waiting game. The mobilization of the National Guard will take at least Thursday, about the moment when the State’s demand will receive its first hearing in the Federal Court. In comments to journalists on Monday, hero Kotek expects hope that he can still work to “delay, kill [or] Redirect ”implementation.
But in a speech For military leaders on Tuesday morning, Trump doubled their representation my on Portland as a “war zone.” He had a conversation with Kotek. “I receive a call from the liberal governor,” Lord, please don’t enter, we don’t need it. “I said:” Well, unless they are playing false tapes, this resembles World War II, “Trump said.” Your place is burning. “
Trump’s movement to militarize this peaceful city may seem fun fun, if bets hide very serious. We have reached the armed occupation phase of the authoritarian project of the 47th President after only eight months. And speed only seems to be incessant.
Thanks to a colealands David Byrne Interview, I’ve been in a speaker kick. When I was a teenager during the Cold War of the 80s, I was built by the “War of Life Duration.” The letters have all the atmosphere, if none of the plot, or a thriller about the duration of the resistance, the social collapse: “The sound of the gunfire in the distance / I am getting used to it now” … “problem in traffic, I got Troygh
Listening to the song again on my Saturday bicycle ride, his dark vision of a violent American future felt less cinematographic than visceral. Of course, it is cut absurdly accept The idyllic reality of the end of September in Portland. But where Donald Trump directs our country, the notions of trucks “loaded with weapons” and even whispers of “tombs on the road” no longer seem unfathomable. In short, America: this is not a party. This is not a disco. This is not to deceive.
