Trump, apparently misled by video of 2020 protests, threatens to send troops to Portland

US president mistakes scale of anti-Ice rallies after TV report uses old footage from George Floyd demonstrations

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025 - 10:26

Robert Mackey

Donald Trumptold reporters that he might send national guard troops into Portland, Oregon, apparently because he was misled about the scale of small protests there by a TV report that incorrectly presented video recorded in 2020 as having taken place this summer.

“I will say this, I watched today, I didn’t know that was continuing to go on, but Portland is unbelievable, what’s going on,” Mr Trump said. He then claimed, incorrectly, that he had seen video evidence of “the destruction of the city”.