Trump’s Oregon Deployment Sparks Legal Battle, Public Backlash

The latest flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s “law and order” campaign has landed in Oregon. Over the weekend, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an order putting 200 Oregon National Guard soldiers under federal command and shipping them off for a 60-day deployment, right inside their own state.

Governor Tina Kotek wasn’t having it.

“Oregon is our home — not a military target,” she said, adding she’d personally objected to Trump on the phone.

By Sunday night, Oregon’s Democratic attorney general Dan Rayfield had filed a federal lawsuit against Hegseth, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, calling the move “political muscle under the guise of law and order.”

The Guard is normally a state-controlled emergency force for floods, fires and riots. Federalising it without state consent is legally touchy territory. Trump, though, says he’s responding to “War ravaged Portland” and “ICE Facilities under siege from Antifa,” promising “Full Force, if necessary” on Truth Social.

This isn’t the first time. Since taking office, Trump has sent troops into Democratic-run cities from Washington, DC to Memphis and Los Angeles. It’s a pattern: immigration protests outside ICE buildings, accusations of “radical left” violence, and mass arrests, despite CATO Institute data showing most political killings in the US since 2020 came from the right.

Oregon’s ICE protests have been smaller than headlines suggest, fewer than 100 people on Sunday night, The Oregonian reported. But the symbolism matters: troops rolling into a liberal city, lawsuits flying, and a state government warning of federal overreach.

The legal fight could shape how much power presidents have to override state control over their Guard units, and how far the “war on Antifa” will go during Trump’s second term.