The Week Ahead

September 28, 2025

On Saturday, the “Department of War” asked Oregon for the use of up to 200 National Guard troops. The troops, which would be federally funded but remain under state control, are to help with immediate needs to protect “federal personnel, functions, and property” in the state. The “request,” included the claim that “failure to mobilize sufficient forces quickly to address the situation may risk lives and property damage.” There was a threat attached: If Oregon failed to go along—within 12 hours—the Secretary of War would federalize as many troops as he deemed necessary. The “request” was made to the Adjutant General of the Oregon National Guard (ORNG), not to the governor.

Trump posted on Truth Social that same day that the troops would “protect War ravaged Portland” and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities that he claimed were “under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists.” He added that he was “authorizing Full Force, if necessary.” He didn’t specify what “full force” meant, but it was widely perceived as authorizing the use of lethal force against American citizens.

Oregon, apparently, did not bend the knee. The Trump administration responded on Sunday.

Trump used Title 10 USC §12406 to federalize 2,000 troops. If that sounds familiar, it should. It’s similar to what happened in neighboring California. Liza Goitein, the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, explained Trump’s application of this law back in June when Trump federalized California Guard troops, explaining the law “allows the president to call up the National Guard if there is ‘a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States’ or if ‘the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.’” This is not The Insurrection Act, but past presidents have used this provision alongside The Act as authority to call-up troops pursuant to it. Trump takes the view that he has inherent authority to deploy troops to protect federal prerogatives, using § 12406 to make it happen. The thin hook he relies on is a claim that he believes a situation exists where he is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States” and that once he makes that assessment, no one, including the courts, has the authority to countermand it.

Despite Trump’s claims about the city, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said, “There is no national security threat in Portland. Our communities are safe and calm.” Residents posted pictures of their weekend activities. Like this:

And this:

Letters from the front are flooding social media.

And this. This is Portland, people.

The ridiculousness of Trump’s claims doesn’t make the situation any less serious. California and Illinois having held the line until now, Trump seems determined to try again in Oregon to claim for himself the unprecedented ability to put troops on American streets and to use them against American citizens. (There may be something reemerging with Chicago, where large numbers of federal agents have been seen patrolling the streets today.)

Goitein told me that “presidents have deployed troops domestically to quell civil unrest or enforce the law only 30 times in our nation’s 250-year history, yet if Trump follows through in Portland, he will have done it three times in nine months. This is wildly out of step with our nation’s principles and traditions.” Trump is undoubtedly hoping for a confrontation in the city that he can use to justify his claims.

Sunday afternoon, the state of Oregon sued the Trump administration.

“The ‘traditional and strong resistance of Americans to any military intrusion into civilian affairs’ has ‘deep roots in our history,’” Oregon’s complaint begins. “Our nation’s founders recognized that military rule—particularly by a remote authority indifferent to local needs—was incompatible with liberty and democracy. Foundational principles of American law therefore limit the President’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs.”

That power is primarily reserved to Congress. Oregon agrees that Congress has delegated a portion of that power to the president, but notes that “it carefully limited the President’s authority to exert control over a state’s National Guard—the modern term for the militia—to specific circumstances. And for over a century and a half, Congress has expressly forbidden federal military interference in civilian law enforcement.” Oregon has asked the courts to both preliminarily and permanently enjoin the administration’s actions. Trump wants the confrontation because he wants the power. And he’s acting like a man who believes the Supreme Court will give it to him, or at least act slowly enough to let him claim it.

Last week Donald Trump:

• Designated ANTIFA as a terrorist organization in an executive order on Monday,

• Issued a memorandum on Thursday titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” a one-sided recitation of political violence in this country, referring, for instance, to Charlie Kirk’s murder but not the attacks on Minnesota legislators and their families, before concluding that recent political violence, “is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation … and violence” and apparently designating anyone who actively opposes Trump as potentially part of a domestic terror group and subject to criminal investigation (there is no legal mechanism for designating domestic terror organizations in the U.S. and any attempt to do so would surely face First Amendment challenges for violating free speech, association, and assembly rights),

• Indicted former FBI Director Jim Comey,

• Directed his appointees at the Justice Department to “instruct more than a half dozen U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail.”

All of this preceded Portland, but it is not unrelated. It is part of the march, now significantly beefed up by Donald Trump, to assume the powers of a monarchy or a dictatorship for the presidency. That’s something the Founding Fathers directly rejected. And Trump is trying to intimidate not only Democratic opposition, but also Republicans, going after Comey and former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who is also reportedly under investigation.

Welcome, once again, to Donald Trump’s America, which people who read Project 2025 before the election understood was coming. Trump is now educating Americans, in concrete terms, about what a so-called unitary presidency would look like. It looks like authoritarianism.

But Portland isn’t yielding.

This is federalism in action. Donald Trump may be attacking democracy at the federal level, but state and local leaders are pushing back. We can support them and work to reinforce democracy from there. Most importantly, we cannot afford to let what Trump is trying to do become normalized. Troops don’t belong on American streets barring dire circumstances. They shouldn’t be authorized to use force against their fellow citizens to suit the president. But we have an advantage on our side—the existence of democracy, not just at the federal level, but at state and local levels too. It is so deeply baked into our fabric as Americans that there will always be a way to keep fighting (nonviolently) for it. Look to the governors and mayors who are intent on pushing back, and don’t give up.

Two weeks ago, the Justice Department quietly removed a study from its website that documented that far-right extremists were responsible for the overwhelming majority of ideologically motivated deaths, outpacing all others. Why take down work funded by DOJ’s National Institute of Justice? It suggests a deliberate move to obscure the facts in advance of last week’s moves to target ANTIFA and anti-Trump organizations. Prosecutors might call that evidence of guilty knowledge. But as Trump demands that the courts not second-guess him, it’s important to reiterate that his is a fact-free presidency.

There will be other developments this week. “Secretary of War” Hegseth has summoned military leaders to Washington for a Tuesday meeting. There is a pre-trial hearing in Charlie Kirk’s murder on Monday. There may be additional developments in deportation cases like the one involving Guatemalan children, and we will likely learn more about the Comey prosecutions and perhaps other Trump targets.

We will address them as they develop. For tonight, the news about Portland is the most pressing.

Of course, everything happens this week in the context of the possible government shutdown on Tuesday night if a continuing resolution isn’t passed to extend federal funding. There is news that a bipartisan leadership meeting with Donald Trump is back on for Monday. And the new Supreme Court term starts a week from Monday.

It’s a lot. Thank you for being here at Civil Discourse, where we can all sort it out together and understand what it means. Your support makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources necessary to the newsletter, and I’m very grateful for you.

We’re in this together,

Joyce