The Trump administration confirmed a Justice Department investigation into the arrest of a conservative journalist at an anti-ICE riot in Portland and suggested the city might face a steep price.
Left-wing protesters have been rioting outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland for months, but the issue came to a head on Thursday when conservative journalist Nick Sortor was arrested during the protest.
‘We will not fund states that allow anarchy. … Law and order will prevail, and President Trump will make sure of it.’
“President Trump will end the radical left’s reign of terror in Portland once and for all,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a media briefing Friday. “The president has directed Secretary [of War Pete] Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland and any ICE facilities under siege from attack by Antifa and other left-wing domestic terrorists.”
She said that Antifa militants have been attacking the ICE field office in south Portland since mid-June.
“This is not peaceful protesting. This is left-wing anarchy that has been destroying this great American city for years, leaving police officers battered, citizens terrorized, and business properties damaged,” Leavitt said.
“These radical left-wing lunatics have violently breached the ICE facility by using a stop sign as a battering ram,” she added, “hurled explosives and other projectiles at law enforcement, repeatedly assault and doxx officers, berate their law-abiding neighbors, and have even rolled out a guillotine in front of the ICE facility.”
She went on to cite the circumstances surrounding Sortor’s arrest as evidence of the failure of local officials to combat the leftist violence.
“Instead of arresting these violent mob members night after night after night after night who are ravaging this community, the police arrested a journalist who was there trying to document the chaos, and everyone in this room should be extremely concerned about that,” she added.
Leavitt said the Justice Department spoke with Sortor and was launching “a full investigation into his arrest.”
RELATED: Hilarious video shows Portland officers enraging anti-ICE protesters by blaring out order in Trump’s voice
“This incident is part of a troubling trend in Portland where left-wing mobs believe they get to decide who can visit and live in their city. It is not their city. It is the American people’s city, and President Trump is going to restore that,” Leavitt continued.
Leavitt said the president was being advised on what potential federal funds could be cut from Portland over the lawlessness allowed on the city’s streets.
“We will not fund states that allow anarchy,” she said.
“Law and order will prevail, and President Trump will make sure of it,” she added.
She added that additional ICE and enhanced resources from Customs and Border Protection were going to be rerouted to Portland.
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