Politicians deride Trump administration over leaked messages on deploying Army to Portland

Politicians in Minnesota and Oregon are condemning the Trump administration over leaked text messages, reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune on Friday, showing high-level advisers discussing whether to send a quick-strike Army division — famous for fighting America’s enemies abroad — into Portland to quell protests.

Some of the elected officials also criticized the administration for talking about sensitive government matters on the encrypted chat app Signal, while one of the advisers was in a crowded, public place where others could clearly see his conversations.

“These leaked messages make it blatantly clear that the decision to send troops to Portland is based on political optics, not safety,” said U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore. “Portland does not want or need any troops, let alone the elite 82nd Airborne unit. And it’s absurd — and dangerous — that this incompetent administration is still discussing supposed national security plans on Signal.”

Portland has become ground zero over President Donald Trump’s efforts to send troops into major metropolitan areas. Trump has publicly said the troops were needed to protect the city and ICE facilities from groups he recently designated “domestic terrorists.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deployed 200 National Guard troops to Portland on Sept. 28. The state of Oregon and the city of Portland have sued to stop the deployment. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said the administration is trying to “normalize the use of military force” in cities.

“Portland isn’t a war zone. It’s a city full of people biking to work, paddleboarding on the Willamette and brewing kombucha,” Rayfield, a Democrat, said in a statement.

On Saturday, a judge temporarily blocked the administration from deploying troops in Portland.

“This shows just how far Trump is willing to go to abuse his power,” Smith said in a statement. “The idea of sending elite combat troops into American cities isn’t about public safety, it’s about intimidation and authoritarian control.”

The Star Tribune, which first reported on the chats’ contents on Friday, has reviewed images of the messages. The chats show Anthony Salisbury, a deputy to White House top policy adviser Stephen Miller, talking to Patrick Weaver, adviser to Hegseth, and other federal officials in a series of text threads last weekend. Salisbury and Weaver discussed the prospect of deploying the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division into Portland, a city Trump has labeled “war ravaged.”

According to Weaver, Hegseth wanted Trump to expressly tell him to send troops into Portland.

“Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver wrote.

The messages suggested Hegseth recognized the ramifications of sending in the Army division, and instead favored deploying the National Guard.

The Portland protests have been limited to a one-block area. However about 400 people marched to the ICE facility where federal agents responded with tear gas and pepper spray. At least six people were arrested as the protesters reached the ICE facility.

The Star Tribune contacted officials in Oregon and Minnesota to get their reaction to the messages and the casual approach Trump officials are taking over such an extraordinary move for a presidential administration.

Unlike the National Guard, which is commonly deployed by governors during a state of emergency, there is scarce precedent for a U.S. president to send Army troops onto domestic streets.

Oregon has challenged the administration’s attempt to send in troops under federal laws limiting how the military can be deployed.

“Our laws rightly limit how the military can be used domestically,” said Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in response to the Star Tribune’s reporting. “If the president wants to keep communities safe, he can and should fund local law enforcement.”

“That’s why they’re on an 18-hour standby to respond to urgent global emergencies, not local law enforcement missions. The fact that this conversation even took place — by text, no less — is highly inappropriate,” said McCollum, the ranking member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

When asked for a response to the criticism, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson didn’t address specifics related to sending the 82nd to Portland or the fact that a government official was indiscreetly sending messages over an unsecured messaging app. Instead, she reiterated a previous comment that the texts do not contain classified information and commended Salisbury for working while he traveled through Minnesota last weekend for a family funeral.

U.S. Rep. Illhan Omar criticized the idea of sending “elite military units to confront peaceful protesters.”

U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison said the Trump administration’s “increasing threat of using military force against citizens of the United States should trouble all Americans.”

“Given that the president has declared multiple times that he ‘hates’ his political opponents, these threats are particularly harrowing,” she said.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who is vying for an open U.S. Senate seat to replace the retiring Smith, said the messages show Hegseth and other Trump military officials are unfit to serve.

“Whether it’s using unsecured networks to discuss war plans or openly communicating about deploying troops to American cities in public, their gross negligence and sheer incompetence is dangerous — and it puts our national security and our service members at risk,” said Craig.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat who is also a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said she wants to see Congress “launch a full investigation into the potential discussion of sensitive or classified information on Signal.”

U.S. Senate candidate Royce White, a Republican, did not specifically address the prospect of using the Army in Portland, but expressed being troubled by the civil unrest there and said he agreed with Trump’s decision to designate Antifa as domestic terrorists. “The MAGA movement is laser focused on defeating America’s enemies both domestic and abroad. … In some places the two overlap.”

Adam Schwarze, also a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, did not respond to a request for comment.