Op-Ed: Doug Blair: I'm from Portland. Trump is right to send in the troops

Send in the troops, Doug Blair writes in his latest op-ed.

If you’ve ever once met me, you know I’m from Portland, Oregon. My wife jokes it’s the only thing I talk about. She’s not wrong; I’m proud of where I grew up.

So when President Donald Trump announced last week that he intended to send federal troops to Portland to protect ICE facilities from left-wing activists, friends and colleagues asked for my opinion.

I fully support Trump’s plan to restore order in Portland, and I hope he follows through.

Six years ago, I wrote my first article as a journalist: “Why Portland’s Homeless Problem Is the Worst in the Nation.” I argued homelessness was the root of the city’s decline. People felt unsafe as fentanyl zombies shuffled through the streets. Stabbings, kidnappings, and muggings were routine.

Who would want to start a business in such a place or live there? City and state leaders shrugged, claimed nothing could be done, then raised taxes to fund more “social services.”

I believed then that homelessness was the defining issue facing the city. A year later, it became clear the rot went much deeper.

Portland became the poster child for left-wing violence during the 2020 George Floyd riots. Long after the rest of the country calmed down, the city endured political violence, property destruction, and constant clashes with police.

Antifa entered the national spotlight as videos of black-masked agitators clashing with right-wing protesters, police, and journalists went viral. In one case, a member of the black bloc murdered a Patriot Prayer supporter before being shot by police.

Things have only worsened. A 2023 study found meth residue on every tested surface of Portland’s light rail system. Fentanyl was present in 37.5 percent of air samples and half of surface samples. One report described a homeless woman, nine months pregnant with her fifth child, smoking fentanyl “about every fifteen minutes.”

Political violence continues, now mostly targeting federal immigration authorities. Portland’s sanctuary city policies block cooperation with federal enforcement. ICE agents face not only bureaucratic resistance but also violent mobs; residents even tried building battering rams to storm ICE headquarters.

Political violence continues unabated, mainly targeting federal immigration authorities who are simply there to enforce the law. Portland is a sanctuary city and refuses to cooperate with federal efforts to remove illegal immigrants making their job that much harder. ICE also has a difficult job when angry residents attempt to build battering rams and break into their headquarters and when city officials refuse to enforce the law.

And homelessness festers. A tepid city response to violent incidents involving hobos outside Portland’s central library highlights the problem. Officials have increased sweeps of homeless camps, but activists resist, preferring to posture against the mayor rather than stop overdoses in public.

To be fair, claims that Portland is a “war zone” are overstated. The worst drug use and riot damage are mostly confined to downtown.

But the rot is spreading.

I used to frequent a downtown nightlife district in college. When I returned two years ago with my wife, it looked like a scene from The Walking Dead: fentanyl addicts stumbling through piles of trash.

A street once bustling with bars and clubs had become a wasteland. It is against this blighted backdrop, where it is taken as a given that Trump’s decision to send troops would result in leftists engaging in political violence, that federal government’s response must be measured.

The citizens of Portland who reject destruction simply want peace and the enforcement of federal law. Sending in the force of the federal government to ensure this happens would be a welcome development.

I’ll close with Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R., Ark.) words from his 2020 New York Times op-ed. He was vilified then for calling to send in troops, but he was right. His words apply just as much now.

“The American people aren’t blind to injustices in our society, but they know that the most basic responsibility of government is to maintain public order and safety,” Cotton wrote. “In normal times, local law enforcement can uphold public order. But in rare moments, like ours today, more is needed, even if many politicians prefer to wring their hands while the country burns.”

Portland may not be burning like it did back then, but the embers of leftist discontent are beginning to smolder. If left unchecked, efforts by the Trump administration to carry out federal law will be met with increasing violence.

Unless local leaders confront the drug crisis and political violence head-on, Portland’s decline will continue and federal intervention may be the city’s last hope.

Doug Blair is a conservative commentator and is the author of the Blair Broadcast.