Portland police chief pushes back on White House ‘war zone’ narrative

Portland Police Chief Bob Day speaks with ABC News. (ABC News)

(PORTLAND, Ore.) — The Portland police chief is disputing President Donald Trump’s claim that the Oregon city is a “war zone” that is burning down and “war-ravaged” by protesters and violent criminals, amid legal challenges to the White House’s deployment of National Guard troops.

“No, I would not say Portland’s war-ravaged,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day told ABC News on Monday, calling the narrative that the city is under siege by protesters “disappointing.”

“It’s not a narrative that’s consistent with what’s actually happening now,” Day said. “Granted, 2020 and ’21, that conversation made a lot more sense. But in the last couple of years, under my administration, we’ve seen great strides made in the area of crime and safety.”

A U.S. district judge over the weekend temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland, where the White House sought to have troops protect federal buildings.

Day said the demonstrations centered on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility take up a single block of the 145-square-mile city. He said in the past three months, there have been a few dozen arrests at the facility for assault and vandalism, but that his department is able to manage it with regional support.

“We have been engaged. We have been addressing violence. We have been addressing vandalism,” he said.

Sending in the National Guard would increase attention and potentially draw outsiders “looking to create some energy,” he said.

“The National Guard is not needed at this time for this particular problem,” Day said. “We are grateful for their service, respectful of the National Guard. These are citizen soldiers, Oregonians, or our neighbors, our friends. But for that role, we don’t need them right now.”

On Sept. 27, Trump directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to provide “all necessary troops” to Portland amid protests at the city’s ICE facility.

The State of Oregon and the City of Portland sued, with officials in the city and state denouncing the action as unnecessary. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut on Saturday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending the National Guard to Portland, finding that conditions in Portland were “not significantly violent or disruptive” to justify a federal takeover of the National Guard, and that the president’s claims about the city were “simply untethered to the facts.”

The Trump administration swiftly appealed the order and sent 200 California National Guard troops to Portland, leading Immergut to issue a second restraining order on Sunday that temporarily bars any federalized members of the National Guard from being deployed to Oregon.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained Monday that Trump is working within his authority as commander-in-chief to deploy the National Guard to Portland because he has deemed the situation there “appropriate” to warrant the action.

“For more than 100 days, night after night after night, the ICE facility has been really under siege by these anarchists outside,” she said during a press briefing. “They have been disrespecting law enforcement. They’ve been inciting violence.”

Trump on Monday continued to rail against the city, calling Portland a “burning hellhole” and likened the situation there to an “insurrection.”

“Portland is on fire. Portland’s been on fire for years, and not so much saving it,” he said while taking questions in the Oval Office on Monday. “We have to save something else, because I think that’s all insurrection. I really think that’s really criminal insurrection.”