President Trump’s decision to direct military support to Portland and to protect federal ICE facilities is a clear response to a pattern of threats and attacks on federal property that the Biden years have ignored. The president said he would authorize troops to use “full force, if necessary,” signaling that the federal government will no longer stand by while law-enforcement personnel and government buildings are harassed.
Oregon’s Democratic governor pushed back immediately, saying there is “no insurrection” and that military troops are “not needed,” a reflexive response from officials who would rather posture than secure their cities. Her refusal to publicly embrace federal help is the latest example of local leaders putting political optics above public safety and the protection of federal employees doing a difficult job.
Portland’s own mayor even admitted the obvious: the number of necessary troops is zero unless the administration plans to manufacture a crisis, and local crime data show violent incidents have fallen this year, undermining the left’s claim of a city under siege. Yet the same officials who celebrate those statistics turn around and denounce a federal response the moment it interferes with their preferred narrative.
Conservatives who have demanded the restoration of law and order should applaud the administration for finally offering to protect ICE facilities and federal personnel from targeted attacks; leaving them vulnerable would be a dereliction of duty. If Democratic governors want to play politics with national security, fine — but the federal government has a responsibility to secure its own sites and personnel when local leaders won’t.
There are legitimate legal questions about how and when active-duty troops are used on American streets, and conservatives should not blink from those debates; but neither should we allow procedural concerns to be an excuse for timidity in the face of organized lawlessness. The 2020 playbook showed that inaction invites escalation, and Americans of every political stripe deserve leaders who will act to keep them safe rather than stage rhetorical photo-ops.
Hardworking Americans are tired of elites who treat order as optional. If protecting federal facilities, ICE agents, and honest citizens from violence is “political,” then give us politics that deliver safety and common sense rather than chaos and excuses. Local officials who refuse cooperation should be held to account, and patriots everywhere should stand behind measures that restore security and defend the rule of law.
