When over the weekend federal Judge Karin Immergut (a Trump appointee) blocked Trump from deploying Oregon’s National Guard to Portland, Trump said she “should be ashamed of herself” because “Portland is burning to the ground.”
Trump promptly ordered the California National Guard to Portland.
Apart from the obvious question of how Trump can so blatantly defy a federal judge, there’s a deeper puzzle here. Where did he get the idea Portland is burning to the ground?
Nine days ago, when Trump first threatened to send troops to Portland, Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, told him there was no reason. “He thinks there are elements here creating an insurrection,” Kotek said after her call with Trump. “I told him there is no insurrection here and that we have this under control.”
Trump responded to Kotek this way:
“I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? … They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place … it looks like terrible.”
Why the factual discrepancy between what Governor Kotek told Trump about Portland and what he believed was happening there?
In the suit seeking an injunction to stop Trump from sending troops to Portland, which Judge Immergut granted, the state of Oregon alleged that Trump relied on videoclips from Portland protests over the murder of George Floyd that took place in 2020.
According to the lawsuit,
On September 5, 2025, “Fox News aired a report on Portland ICE protests that included misleading clips from Portland protests in 2020. Shortly thereafter, President Trump appeared to reference events in the same misleading Fox News report when speaking to the press. A reporter asked which city President Trump planned to send troops to next, and he said he was considering targeting Portland because of news coverage the night before. President Trump alleged that ‘paid terrorists’ and ‘paid agitators’ were making the city unlivable, further stating … ‘if we go to Portland, we’re gonna wipe them out. They’re going to be gone and they’re going to be gone fast.’”
During the hearing on Oregon’s lawsuit, Trump’s Justice Department argued that “the record does show a persistent threat,” offering as evidence a Trump post on Truth Social.
“Really?” asked Judge Immergut. “A social media post is going to count as a presidential determination that you can send the National Guard to cities? That’s really what I should be relying on?”
The Justice Department’s attorneys then cited reports from the Portland Police Bureau that protest crowds were “very energized,” numbering “over 50 to 60” people.
But attorneys for Oregon pointed out that the same police documents showed the protests had become much smaller and subdued — 8 to 15 people at any given time, “mostly sitting in lawn chairs and walking around … Energy was low, minimal activity.”
What can we learn from this mess?
First, Trump is now openly defying the order of a federal court.
Second, the most powerful person in the world apparently decided to use potentially lethal force on Americans on the basis of a five-year-old Fox News clip that crossed his television screen.
Third, Trump evidently does not have a process for getting current, verified information before he makes big decisions.
For over a century, every other president has been at the center of a system of information, flowing from people who have expertise in assessing the relevance and truth of that information — people who provide him with recommendations as to how to respond to a crisis, along with alternatives and assessments of the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.
Trump, by contrast, is making potentially lethal decisions on the basis of whatever happens to be shown on the television he’s watching.
Fourth, although Trump has never thought much about the quality of information he receives before making decisions — in his first term he bragged about his infallible “intuition” — we have every reason to believe he’s becoming demented (see here) and his capacity to think more compromised than ever.
Fifth, to the extent anyone is making decisions in the White House, it’s the troika of Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, and JD Vance — who appear to have taken control over much of what Trump hears and sees (including, perhaps, five-year-old Fox News clips?). Their strategy seems to be aimed at making war on Democratic states.
Which brings me to the sixth point: We should be very concerned. A disturbed man and his fanatical advisors are making potentially life-threatening decisions on the basis of what he sees on television.
He’s also defying a federal court. He’s ordering federal troops to forcefully occupy an American city whose mayor and governor don’t want him to. He’s already causing people — some of whom are American citizens — to be arrested and detained without due process.
He’s also bombing vessels in international waters — killing people whom he claims, without evidence, are smuggling drugs into the United States.
Meanwhile, much of the federal government is shuttered. Republicans in Congress are AWOL. Democrats in Congress are trying to use their limited leverage to get health insurance back for some 20 million Americans.
We’re in trouble, friends.
Trump and his enablers want a violent confrontation in Portland to justify their illegal move. I urge you not to fall into their trap. Don’t protest there.
But do peacefully demonstrate on October 18 — in every town and city across America.
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
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