Trump officials discussed sending elite Army division to Portland

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth considered sending an elite U.S. Army strike force to Portland, Ore., to quell protests that President Donald Trump has characterized as “lawless mayhem,” according to images of messages provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

The messages, casually exchanged last weekend in a crowded, public space, show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, an infantry division that has been parachuted into combat zones in both world wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan. If the administration were to send in the Army division, it would almost certainly be challenged in court under federal laws limiting how the military can be used domestically.

The Trump administration ordered National Guard troops — not the 82nd Airborne — to Portland this week. The messages suggest that the once-extraordinary step of sending military troops into an American city has been normalized within the administration, the subject of a chat in a public place.

Anthony Salisbury, a deputy to White House top policy adviser Stephen Miller, sent the texts over the private messaging app Signal while traveling in Minnesota and in clear view of others. Troubled by seeing sensitive military planning discussed so openly, a source contacted the Star Tribune and allowed a reporter to review images of the texts.

Over the course of several conversations, totaling dozens of messages, Salisbury chatted candidly, and at times profanely, about a wide range of matters with Hegseth’s adviser Patrick Weaver and other high-ranking federal officials.

According to Weaver, Hegseth wanted Trump to expressly tell him to send troops into the American city.

“Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver wrote.

He acknowledged the potential political ramification of deploying Army troops to a U.S. city. Hegseth preferred to send the National Guard, he wrote.