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ABC News: Portland police chief pushes back on White House ‘war zone’ narrative
“No, I would not say Portland’s war-ravaged,” Chief Bob Day told ABC News.
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.”
Portland police chief pushes back on White House ‘war zone’ narrative
The Portland police chief is disputing President Donald Trump’s claim that the city is a “war zone” amid legal challenges to the deployment of National Guard troops.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/portland-police-chief-pushes-back-white-house-war/story?id=126274228
CNN: Federal judge temporarily blocks any deployment of National Guard to Portland
A federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending any National Guard troops to Portland – a ruling which came as the Trump administration stepped up attempts to send out-of-state National Guard troops to the city after the judge earlier denied mobilizing Oregon National Guard troops.
Shortly before the Sunday evening hearing, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of hundreds of Texas National Guard members to Illinois, Oregon and “other locations” in the US, according to the states’ governors.
US District Judge Karin Immergut – a Trump appointee – voiced skepticism toward the administration’s arguments to deploy the National Guard from the start, expressing frustration over what she characterized as an apparent attempt to sidestep her original Saturday order.
Addressing Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton late Sunday, she said: “Mr. Hamilton, you are an officer of the court. Aren’t the defendants simply circumventing my order?”
The tense hearing, which lasted less than 30 minutes, saw Immergut press the Justice Department lawyer, occasionally interrupting him to insist he answer her questions directly.
“What was unlawful with the Oregon National Guard is unlawful with the California National Guard,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a news conference before the Sunday ruling. The judge’s ruling was not some minor procedural point for the president to work around like my 14-year-old does when he doesn’t like my answers.”
Immergut granted a temporary restraining order Saturday blocking Trump from sending the Oregon National Guard to Portland, the state’s largest city, ruling that city and state officials “are likely to succeed on their claim that the President exceeded his constitutional authority and violated the Tenth Amendment” in ordering the deployment.
The state had amended its original complaint against calling up the Oregon National Guard in federal district court and filed for a second temporary restraining order to pause the president’s actions.
In response to the amended complaint, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “The facts haven’t changed: President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said the president’s move to send troops from California appeared to intentionally sidestep Immergut’s ruling, which the Trump administration said it would appeal.
About 100 California National Guard troops have already arrived in Oregon and more are on the way, Kotek said earlier Sunday.
“At the direction of the President, approximately 200 federalized members of the California National Guard are being reassigned from duty in the greater Los Angeles area to Portland, Oregon to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement before Sunday’s ruling.
Kotek also said Sunday that the Department of Defense has ordered the Texas Adjutant General to deploy 400 Texas National Guard members to a number of states, including Illinois and Oregon.
“I have received no direct explanation from President Trump or Secretary (Pete) Hegseth about the specific need for this action. It is unclear how many will go to what location and what mission they will carry out,” she said.
“There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security. Oregon is our home, not a military target,” Kotek said in a statement Sunday.
In recent weeks, Trump has ordered the deployment of federal troops in Democrat-led cities such as Chicago and Portland, arguing military deployments are necessary to protect federal immigration personnel and property amid “violent protests” carried out by “domestic terrorists.”
The anarchy described by the president is strongly disputed by locals who say they don’t want or need federal help.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning to sue over the deployment of National Guard troops from his state, he said in a statement.
“This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power,” he said.
The White House defended the president’s orders in a statement earlier Sunday, saying Trump “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”
“For once, Gavin Newscum should stand on the side of law-abiding citizens instead of violent criminals destroying Portland and cities across the country,” Jackson said in an earlier emailed statement to CNN, misspelling the governor’s name.
CNN has reached out to the California National Guard for comment.
The Saturday decision by Immergut to block the deployment of the Oregon National Guard said the president appeared to have federalized the Oregon National Guard “absent constitutional authority” and protests in Portland “did not pose a ‘danger of a rebellion.’” The judge said Oregon attorneys showed “substantial evidence that the protests at the Portland ICE facility were not significantly violent” leading up to the president’s directive.
While the judge noted that recent incidents cited by the Trump administration of protesters clashing with federal officers “are inexcusable,” she added “they are nowhere near the type of incidents that cannot be handled by regular law enforcement forces.”
Immergut warned some of the arguments offered by the Trump administration “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this nation.”
Last month, a federal judge in California ruled the Trump administration broke the law when it deployed thousands of federalized National Guard soldiers and hundreds of Marines to suppress protests against ICE actions in Los Angeles.
The decision barred troops from carrying out law enforcement in the state, but the White House has appealed the decision.
Immergut, in her opinion, said incidents in Portland are “categorically different” from the violence seen in Los Angeles when the president federalized troops there.
“Neither outside the Portland ICE facility nor elsewhere in the City of Portland was there unlawful activity akin to what was occurring in Los Angeles leading up to June 7, 2025,” the judge wrote.
Federal judge temporarily blocks any deployment of National Guard to Portland | CNN
A federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending any National Guard troops to Portland – a ruling which came as the administration stepped up attempts to send out-of-state National Guard troops to the city after the judge earlier denied mobilizing Oregon National Guard troops.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/05/us/oregon-trump-california-national-guard
CBS News: Trump says the U.S. military destroyed a boat operated by Tren de Aragua off Venezuela. Here’s what to know about the gang.
The deadly U.S. military strike in the Caribbean this week on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela is the latest measure President Trump has taken to combat the threat he sees from the Tren de Aragua gang.
The White House has offered few details on Tuesday’s attack and insists the 11 people aboard were members of the gang. The criminal organization, which traces its roots to a Venezuelan prison, is not known for having a big role in global drug trafficking but for its involvement in contract killings, extortions and human smuggling.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned Wednesday that the United States will keep assets positioned in the Caribbean and strike anyone “trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco terrorist.”
U.S. officials have yet to explain how the military determined that those aboard the vessel were Tren de Aragua members. The strike represents a paradigm shift in how the U.S. is willing to combat drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere and appears to send a combative message to governments in the region as well as drug traffickers.
Tren de Aragua operations spread beyond Venezuela
Tren de Aragua originated more than a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in Venezuela’s central state of Aragua. The gang has expanded in recent years, recruiting from among the more than 7.7 million Venezuelans who have fled economic turmoil in their homeland and migrated to other Latin American countries or the U.S.
Mr. Trump and administration officials have consistently blamed the gang for being at the root of the violence and illicit drug dealing that plague some U.S. cities. Mr. Trump has repeated his claim — contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment — that Tren de Aragua is operating under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s control.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump described Aurora, Colorado, as a “war zone” overrun with members of the gang. Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain rejected that characterization, explaining the gang was tied to organized violent crime concentrated in three apartment complexes in the city.
Chamberlain said earlier this year his department had counted a total of nine confirmed Tren de Aragua members who passed through Aurora in the last two years.
The size of the gang is unclear. Countries with large populations of Venezuelan migrants, including Peru and Colombia, have accused the group of being behind a spree of violence in the region.
Authorities in Chile first identified the gang’s operations in 2022. Prosecutors and investigators have said the group initially engaged primarily in human trafficking, organizing unauthorized border crossings and sexual exploitation, but over time, members have expanded their activities to more violent crimes, such as kidnapping, torture, extortion and became more involved in drug trafficking.
While Tren de Argua has dominated ketamine trafficking in Chile, unlike other criminal organizations from Colombia, Central America and Brazil, it has no large-scale involvement in smuggling cocaine across international borders, according to InSight Crime, a think tank that last month published a 64-page report on the gang based on two years of research.
“We’ve found no direct participation of TdA in the transnational drug trade, although there are cases of them acting as subcontractors for other drug trafficking organizations,” said Jeremy McDermott, a Colombia-based co-founder of InSight Crime.
McDermott added that with affiliated cells spread across Latin America, it would not be a huge leap for the gang to one day delve into the drug trade.
Landlocked Bolivia and Colombia, with access to the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea and a border with Venezuela, are the world’s top cocaine producers.
Trump designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization
On his first day in office, Mr. Trump took steps to designate the gang a foreign terrorist organization alongside several Mexican drug cartels. The Biden administration had sanctioned the gang and offered $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three of its leaders.
Mr. Trump’s executive order accused the gang of working closely with top Maduro officials — most notably the former vice president and one-time governor of Aragua state, Tareck El Aissami — to infiltrate migration flows, flood the U.S. with cocaine and plot against the country. A U.S. intelligence assessment released earlier this year found minimal contact between the gang and low-level officials in the Venezuelan government but said there was no direct coordination between the gang and the government.
In March, Mr. Trump also declared the group an invading force, invoking an 18th century wartime law that allows the U.S. to deport noncitizens without any legal recourse. Under the Alien Enemies Act, the administration sent more than 250 Venezuelan men to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where they remained incommunicado and without access to an attorney until their July deportation to Venezuela.
A U.S. appeals court panel this week ruled that Mr. Trump cannot use that law to speed deportations of people his administration accuses of being Tren de Aragua members. A final ruling on the matter, however, will be made by the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration alleged the men deported to the prison were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, but provided little evidence. One justification officials used was that the men had certain kinds of tattoos allegedly signifying gang membership, including crowns, clocks and other symbols. But experts have said tattoos are not reliable markers of affiliation to the gang.
Trump cites the gang in justifying the military strike
The U.S. has not released the names and nationalities of the 11 people killed Tuesday. It also has not offered an estimate of the amount of drugs it says the boat was carrying.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday told reporters the U.S. military will continue lethal strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels, but he dodged questions on details of the strike, including if the people in the boat were warned before the attack.
But, he said, Mr. Trump “has a right, under exigent circumstances, to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”
“If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl or whatever, headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States,” he told reporters in Mexico City during a visit to Latin America.
Venezuela’s government, which has long minimized the presence of Tren de Aragua in the South American country, limited its reaction to the strike to questioning the veracity of a video showing the attack. Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez suggested it was created using artificial intelligence and described it as an “almost cartoonish animation, rather than a realistic depiction of an explosion.”
Hegseth responded that the strike “was definitely not artificial intelligence,” adding he watched live footage from Washington as the strike was carried out.
The strike shows that the U.S. government is “quite literally deadly serious” in its targeting of drug traffickers, said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
But he questioned whether the link to Tren de Aragua has more to do with the “familiarity” that Americans now have with the gang.
“I certainly hope that the U.S. government has the intelligence and we are not shooting first and asking questions later,” Berg said.
Eleven Venezuelans murdered without due process!
Trump says the U.S. military destroyed a boat operated by Tren de Aragua off Venezuela. Here’s what to know about the gang.
The deadly U.S. military strike this week on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela is the latest measure President Trump has taken to combat the threat he sees from the Tren de Aragua gang.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-boat-tren-de-aragua-gang-venezuela
MeidasTouch News: White House Initiates Search for New Secretary of Defense, Report
In a stunning turn of events, NPR is reporting that the White House has begun the process of seeking a new Secretary of Defense, according to a U.S. official who spoke under condition of anonymity. This development follows a rapidly escalating crisis within the Department of Defense, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faces mounting scrutiny and calls for his resignation amid a series of scandals and growing dysfunction at the Pentagon.
I guess the drunken wifebeater isn’t working out?
Fox News: Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak
Fox News political analyst Brit Hume expressed astonishment after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, his former colleague at the network, attempted to deflect a question about inadvertently leaking plans for airstrikes in Yemen.
Hegseth was one of more than a dozen Trump administration national security officials who were added to a group chat that mistakenly included The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who revealed the government’s massive blunder in a story for the magazine.
Noting the “shocking recklessness” of the officials, Goldberg wrote that one message sent to the group by Hegseth “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Goldberg, who has the same initials as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, was mistakenly added to the group by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
When asked about the story by a reporter, Hegseth’s initial response was to duck the burgeoning scandal and attack Goldberg.
Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak