On the plus side, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley at least now admits that there have been riots at the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. On the negative side, Democrats have now completely hit peak nutball.
Merkley announced to reporters that he believes that the Antifa riots, attacks, and unrest Portland has seen since June 7, 2025, have been staged by the Trump administration to use as a blind behind which to call out American National Guard troops in furtherance of his diabolical takeover of America... or something. Nobody's quite sure.
It's an escalation in the asymmetric information war since June between Oregon leftists and the citizens of Portland. Now the Trump administration has called for National Guard troops to protect ICE agents, who are mobbed nearly every night.
While the legacy media in Portland have ignored or downplayed the constant unrest and violence against ICE officers in Portland, the city has thrown its lot in with the terrorists.
Related: Welcome to Portland, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
Indeed, the left's message has gone from what's Antifa to siding with Antifa in court following a noise lawsuit, to Violence? What Violence? to Portland's fine — what are you talking about, to today's revelation from Merkley that sure, yeah, what you see is real and there's violence, but Donald Trump is behind it!
This is insanity! No wonder the White House issued a press release on the fake news coming out of Portland. Portland leftists, you're being Trumped. That means Trump will make you own your mistakes for failing to do your number one job: public safety.
“Trump’s troops are deliberately attacking peaceful protesters to incite violence," Merkley told stunned reporters who had to have known better. "The goal is to generate riots to justify the expansion of authoritarian measures and to strengthen the case for the troop deployments," he alleged. But he did not clarify what the secret, unstated purpose of troop deployments was. Shh... It's a secret!
“There is no ‘invasion’ or ‘rebellion’ that justifies the federalization of the National Guard... this is about attacking citizens' right to peacefully protest," he argued. "Our republic is in big trouble," Merkley concluded. And if his reputation as a leftist gadfly is any indication, he is right; our republic is in big trouble if he's looked to as a leader.
Talk about gaslighting. If you are dumb enough to believe Jeff Merkley, then you're too dumb to vote. Indeed, if this latest strategem is any indication, these leftists will say just about anything from minute to minute to side with their party's chaos agents over people who simply want to live their lives and be free from the violence.
Related: My Shocking Undercover Experience at Portland's Antifa-Besieged ICE Building
Merkley's wild claims beg the question, however. If the Portland ICE officers staged the riots, then why do I recognize some of these lefties that I've seen for years at everything from OCCUPY to the 2020 Summer of Love? Is Donald Trump such a diabolical mastermind that he began planning for the fake ICE riots years ago?
🚨UNHINGED: Dem Senator Jeff Merkley is now claiming the recent riots in Portland were "staged" to justify federal involvement.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 8, 2025
"Totally fake!" pic.twitter.com/imsgaXFxFW
Merkley's wild-eyed allegations also beg another question. If the Portland ICE officers staged the riots, then why do I recognize some of these lefties that I've seen for years at everything from OCCUPY to the 2020 Summer of Love? Is Donald Trump such a diabolical mastermind that he began planning for Merkley's "fake" ICE riots years and years ago?
Merkley says he got the idea for his big whopper from the local PBS station that claimed ICE over-responded to one of the recent riots. The report never stated the ICE reaction was "staged" or "faked." In fact, ICE's response was par for the course for the number of people trying to block the building's driveway.
We're unsure how many nights that OPB has gotten off its collective butt to get out there and report on the ICE riots, but I can tell you that Katie Daviscourt and C.K. Bouferrache have been feeling kind of lonely out there covering the Antifa violence for all these months, all by themselves.
Watch the video for yourself below and ask how safe it is for ICE officers to be mobbed by these huge crowds every night. Save for last weekend after Trump's National Guard dispute with the City of Portland and State of Oregon, the local media have been in what the White House calls "shameful denial about the Radical Left’s reign of terror." I can personally attest that the White House characterization of both the violence and the media's reaction to it is spot on.
And Jeff Merkley had better pipe up with a public apology and do so quickly. It's not just reprehensible and malinformed; it's dangerous for the ICE agents.
Oh, and Merkley, now that you acknowledge the violence: Welcome to the party, pal.
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