
More Portlanders support President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal troops to Portland, Oregon, than Democrats care to admit.
Included among these Portlanders are business owners like Amy Nichols, whose business has been broken into 10 times.
“Something needs to be done, and if this is what we need to do to get our leaders paying attention to what’s happening in Portland, then I think it’s a good thing,” she told the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday.
“We’ve been struggling for a long time since 2020, and it’s really difficult to do business in downtown Portland, and we need all the help we can get. If this creates a little bit of peace in our city and shows that there really are some issues happening, then I think that it’s for the best,” she added.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
Next is Loretta Guzman, the owner of Bison Coffeehouse. Local hooligans recently shattered her shop’s windows. Crime has also affected her personal life: She heard gunfire while asleep one night. Seconds later, her nephew’s girlfriend knocked on her door to tell her he’d been shot.
“When she called 911, she didn’t get a response, so I called 911 and I got a recording in the middle of a life-and-death situation,” she recalled to Fox News. “I tried to go get my car so I could try to save him, and people were standing around when I pulled up next to his car, and nobody would help me lift him.”
Her nephew was too heavy for her to lift into the car, “so he ended up dying with me praying on him,” she said.
As for Trump’s crackdown, she’s not sure how much effect it’ll have on business owners like her, but she’s not inherently against it.
“I don’t think it’ll affect us, our businesses,” she said. “We already struggle every day, every week with the crime and the drugs and the unsafeness that comes with being here in our city right now. It’s like our leaders have abandoned public safety for us.”
While political candidates are being firebombed and the crime rate is 200% above the national average, Portland’s Police Chief Bob Day, who runs a DEI consulting firm, is more worried going on CNN and minimizing the issues the city faces, than he is about being honest about them.… pic.twitter.com/57s7eiYe3r
— David Medina (@davidmedinapdx) October 3, 2025
Nichols and Guzman aren’t alone in their frustrations.
Nearby resident Debbie Zimmerlee said she used to love coming to Portland to dine, but that changed after last November.
“I wanted to go to the Fred Meyer [grocery store] that was just like two or three blocks down the street,” she told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). “And I was afraid to go.”
Why? Because of all the crime and mayhem. She did wind up making the walk, but only with her husband speaking with her on the phone the whole way, “until I got into the motel room and got the door locked.”
Randy Welborn also supports the federal troop deployment.
“What are we supposed to do — not send troops in there?” he asked OPB. “I mean, obviously, the leadership in Portland is not willing to deal with it, so they’ve left the door open for somebody that is going to try to do it.”
Chris Larsen concurred, telling OPB that he spent 35 years as a commercial carpenter in Portland, back “when it was the most beautiful city in the United States.”
“Now we’re pig slop,” he added. “So, if the feds got to come and do it, so be it.”
But standing against these brave locals is Portland’s own radically far-left mayor, Keith Wilson:
JUST NOW: Portland Mayor Keith Wilson blasts Trump sending federal troops to Portland and claims footage from ongoing violent ICE riots is from 2020, which is a lie.
“The president will not find violence or lawlessness here.”
This guy has ZERO shame. Just go look at… pic.twitter.com/5jHvbYtJwE
— David Medina (@davidmedinapdx) September 27, 2025
He and Oregon’s radical governor, Tina Kotek, both fiercely oppose Trump’s deployment of troops, which Kotek, for her part, has described as “harmful.”
“I continue to be focused on doing whatever I can to protect Oregonians from military intervention or harmful federal law enforcement tactics,” she said Tuesday. “Oregon is united against military policing in our communities.”
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