‘Portland is doing just fine’: Oregon governor rejects Trump’s plan to send troops to the city

Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek speaks at a news conference in Portland, Ore., on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, after Republican President Donald Trump said he would send troops to the city.

Claire Rush / AP

Gov. Tina Kotek urged President Trump by phone on Saturday to back off of threats to send troops to Portland.

“Portland is doing just fine, and I made that very clear to the President this morning,” Kotek said at a press conference on the city’s waterfront, flanked by local elected leaders and businesspeople.

“Our city is a far cry from the war ravaged community that he has posted about on social media. I conveyed that directly to him.”

Kotek’s statements added to the drumbeat of Oregon officials who have urged citizens not to “take the bait” in light of Trump’s announcement on social media that he would send troops to a city he has often described in apocalyptic terms.

But the press event didn’t offer much clarity on exactly what the federal government might have planned.

On questioning, Kotek acknowledged that she had received “written communication” from the U.S. Department of War that she said offered the state the option of utilizing national guard troops.

Kotek said she is not responding to that letter.

“There is no mission for them right now,” she said, adding that troops may be needed to address wildfires. “I am not deploying the Oregon National Guard.”

The governor also said her office is not aware of any new federal troop presence in the state, and that she would continue to urge Trump not to send any.

Local and federal officials held a hasty press conference on Friday announcing an increase in federal law enforcement officers in the state. That is apparently in response to weeks of protest outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city.

“Don’t take the bait,” U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said at the impromptu Friday briefing at a Northeast Portland church, flanked by city, county and federal leaders.

Portland Police Chief Bob Day said Saturday that the stepped up law enforcement presence is separate from an influx of federal troops.

Kotek, like other Oregon elected officials, said she awoke Saturday to the president’s announcement troops would be arriving in the state. She had not heard from the White House through any other channels, she said.

Kotek said she spoke first with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Saturday morning, then Trump roughly an hour later.

She and other leaders suggested Saturday that Trump had been deceived about the actual state of the city by re-use of images from 2020, when the city saw protracted and sometimes violent protests over racial justice.

“I’ve been so deeply disappointed to see the footage from a half decade ago recycled and then recycled again,” said Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, one of the officials who appeared alongside Kotek.

Related: Trump says he’ll send troops to Portland to handle ‘domestic terrorists’

The press conference was part of a barrage of reaction Saturday by Oregon elected officials to Trump’s announcement.

Wilson said “the number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city.”

“Our nation has a long memory for acts of oppression, and the president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it,” Wilson said. “Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers to Portland, instead of a short, expensive, and fruitless show of force.”

Trump announced that he would be sending troops to “protect war-ravaged Portland,” and that he was authorizing full force if necessary.

Wilson noted Saturday that the meaning of full force is not clear.

“There are new risks today, risks that we do not yet fully understand,” Wilson said. “The administration has refused to elaborate on what they mean when they say they will deploy full force against our city and citizens.”

Related: Portland leaders urge calm amid reports of a surge in federal officers at the ICE building

U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter on Saturday morning said Trump’s announcement was a betrayal of American values.

“Authoritarians rely on fear to divide us,” Dexter said. “Portland will not give them that. We will not be intimidated.”

Meanwhile, former Oregon representative and current U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer applauded the announcement and echoed Trump’s characterization of Portland.

“I’ve seen firsthand how lawlessness has transformed Portland from a beautiful place to live to a crime-ridden war zone,” she said in a post on X. “Thank you, @POTUS, for taking action to keep our ICE facilities protected and Make America Safe Again!

Earlier this month, Trump had said living in Portland was like “living in hell.” He said at the time he was considering sending in federal troops, as he has also threatened to do in other cities, including Chicago and Baltimore.