President Trump tweeted Thursday that federal troops will remain in Portland — while slamming Oregon Gov. Kate Brown for failing to arrest the “anarchists & agitators.”
The commander in chief’s message comes a day after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that all federal agents deployed to combat protests in Portland would begin pulling out Thursday.
“Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon, isn’t doing her job,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “She must clear out, and in some cases arrest, the Anarchists & Agitators in Portland. If she can’t do it, the Federal Government will do it for her. We will not be leaving until there is safety!”
On Wednesday, Brown tweeted that the decision to yank the feds came after talks with Vice President Pence and others.
She said beginning Thursday, all Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will leave downtown Portland.
But Chad Wolf, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, made it clear that the agency would only “change our force posture” if “circumstances on the ground significantly improve due to the influx of state and local law enforcement.”
He said state police would work with Federal Protective Services to continue protecting federal properties.
“As I told the governor yesterday, federal law enforcement will remain in Portland until the violent activity toward our federal facilities ends,” Wolf tweeted Wednesday. “We are not removing any law enforcement while our facilities and law enforcement remain under attack.”
