Trump sent troops into Portland.

To protect historic monuments and statues, Trump had deployed special forces across the country where protests took place over George Floyd's killing.

To protect historic monuments and statues, Trump had deployed special forces across the country where protests took place over George Floyd's killing.Thousands of people took to the US streets after the killing of George Floyd's at the hands of the Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. Following that, protests, rallies, and clashes with police officers escalated across the country in 2020, demanding police reforms and racial equality. The protest turned violent in many places.

On June 26, 2020, former President Donald Trump passed an executive order instructing federal agencies to provide personnel to assist with protecting Federal monuments, memorials, statues, or property. The officers were drawn from various branches, including the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency and the US Marshals Service. Some of those CBP agents in Portland, photographed in camouflage, were in the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, the agency's equivalent to a SWAT team.

After the protests intensified in several cities, including Oregon and Portland, in early July 2020, Trump decided to send troops to Portland to control the crowd and demonstrators. On July 1, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deployed security forces across the country. DHS Security, Chad F. Wolf, said, "As we approach July 4, I have directed the deployment and pre-positioning of Rapid Deployment Teams (RDT) across the country to respond to potential threats to facilities and property.” Following that, DHS, in a Press release on July 5, 2020, said that it detained eight people who were involved in the violence and civil unrest in downtown Portland with possible charges of damage to government property and assault on a law enforcement officer.

These officers went to Portland and reportedly fired tear gas and crowd control less-lethal munitions. Few of the officers were federal agents, with some appearing in by camouflage-clad driving unmarked vehicles to seize and detain protesters. The BBC summarised this on July 20.

On July 22, Reuters reported that CBP confirmed that they had deployed officers from three paramilitary-style units to join the federal force on protests against police violence in Portland. A CBP official said in an email to Reuters that "we have agents and officers from our special operations groups deployed.” The official told Reuters that "CBP, which patrols land borders and operates checkpoints for people arriving at U.S. airports and other transportation hubs, has three specially trained units that have deployed officers to Portland."

In July 2020, Trump had sent federal troops to various cities such as Portland, Oregon, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.