WA GOP backs Trump troop deployments; some hope Seattle is next

SEATTLE – As President Donald Trump escalates military deployments to U.S. cities, some prominent Washington Republicans and conservative activists are praising the moves – and suggesting they’d welcome National Guard troops in Seattle.

On social media, the Washington State Republican Party has regularly accused Seattle leaders of condoning lawlessness, and tagged the U.S. Justice Department, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Trump administration leaders in its posts.

At times, the party’s messaging has taken on a tattling tone, pleading for Trump to unleash federal troops or federal law enforcement on Seattle, as he has done in other Democratic-led cities, including Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago.

“Portland today, Seattle tomorrow. President Trump is Making America SAFE Again!” wrote Tiffany Smiley, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Pasco and frequent Fox News commentator, in a post on X last week.

After Trump announced last month he’d order “all necessary Troops” to protect “War ravaged Portland,” the Washington Republican Party’s official X account approvingly shared the president’s message.

“Is Seattle next?” the party asked, accusing Mayor Bruce Harrell and Attorney General Nick Brown of “turning a blind eye to violence” and “protecting criminal illegal aliens.”

The party also circulated a screenshot of an unscientific KOMO-TV online survey showing a majority of respondents would support Trump sending the National Guard to Seattle.

“WA DOES NOT STAND WITH PORTLAND. LEFT-WING NUTJOBS STAND WITH PORTLAND,” the GOP wrote.

Washington Democratic elected leaders have joined those nationally opposing the National Guard deployments.

Brown co-led an amicus brief this week of 24 attorneys general supporting Oregon’s court challenge to Trump’s Portland deployment order.

“By calling forth troops when there is no invasion to repel, no rebellion to suppress, and when state and local law enforcement are fully able to execute the law, the President flouts the vision of our Founders, undermines the rule of law, and sets a chilling precedent that puts the constitutional rights of all Americans at risk,” the brief states.

State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh has ridiculed Washington and Oregon leaders for opposing the Portland deployment.

“Impotent gibberish from Oregon’s halfwit governor,” he wrote on X after Gov. Tina Kotek criticized the federal action during a news conference.

Asked whether he thinks Trump should deploy the National Guard to Seattle, Walsh stopped short of calling such a move currently necessary.

He defended the deployment in Portland, where protests at a local ICE office have been relatively small in recent months, though they’ve sometimes included violent clashes and arrests.

In an email to the Seattle Times, Walsh said he doesn’t see “any analogous violence taking place in Seattle” right now.

But he said if protests similar to Seattle’s 2020 CHOP “insurrection” break out again, Trump would be justified in activating the National Guard. “I suspect such action would be welcome by common-sense Washingtonians,” he said.

Trump’s crackdown on Democratic-led cities has been cheered by a cadre of conservative Seattle-area podcasters and social media influencers who frequently tangle with leftist protesters – and have reported instances of being harassed or assaulted at protests.

The White House on Wednesday hosted a roundtable on what it dubbed “Antifa violence” in Portland, an event that included former local TV journalists Jonathan Choe and Brandi Kruse, who heaped praise on the president.

Kruse, a former Q13 Fox reporter who now hosts her own podcast and stumps for Republican causes, thanked Trump for designating antifa “a terror organization” and for bringing “the full weight of the federal government to bear,” saying it would save lives.

Kruse told Trump she was proof that people can “recover” from “TDS” – or “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” She said her shift to supporting him had made her happier, healthier and “a little more attractive.”

“Very attractive,” Trump replied.

Choe, a former KOMO-TV reporter who now works for conservative activist groups the Discovery Institute and Turning Point USA, asserted at the meeting that progressive groups, including homeless housing nonprofits, are tied to antifa violence.

The Trump administration and conservative allies have vowed to investigate and destroy an array of progressive leaders and organizations in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk last month by a 22-year-old man who reportedly killed Kirk over his political views.

Trump’s National Guard mobilizations are the first to be ordered without the cooperation of state governors since 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson sent troops to protect civil rights marchers from racist attackers in Alabama.

Officials in Oregon, California and Illinois have sued to stop the deployments, arguing they are illegal. Some courts have agreed.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Chicago blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to the city as part of its ongoing immigration-enforcement push.

In California, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s use of troops in Los Angeles this summer violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from acting as a national police force. The ruling said the president can deploy troops to protect federal facilities, but they are restricted from making arrests or performing security patrols and other local police functions.

In Portland, Trump-appointed federal judge Karin Immergut temporarily blocked Trump’s federalization of the National Guard, ruling that the administration’s assertions about violence in the city were “untethered” to the facts.

Immergut ruled the president’s actions violated a longstanding American principle: “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”

The California and Oregon rulings have been appealed by the Trump administration. Trump adviser Stephen Miller attacked Immergut’s ruling as “legal insurrection,” calling anti-ICE protests in Portland “an organized terrorist attack” on the federal government.

A three-judge appeals court panel on Thursday appeared ready to potentially allow the troop deployment in Oregon, with judges expressing skepticism about Immergut’s ruling temporarily blocking them.

The local partisan split over National Guard deployments generally mirrors the national picture, as Republicans have largely praised Trump’s actions.

“Yield, man. Let the troops come into your city and show how crime can be reduced,” said U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson last month, urging mayors around the country to accept military presence.

Some Republican governors have gone further, volunteering to send National Guard units from their states to Washington, D.C., where troops have been activated to patrol the city to deter crime, and to other cities.

In Oregon, Republicans have also publicly backed sending troops to Portland, saying the city has too long been rife with chaotic protests.

Oregon state Rep. Alex Skarlatos, a former member of the National Guard, told a local TV station: “This sounds like something my friends and I would have enjoyed doing.”

The Oregon Republican Party posted a photo online in support of troops in Portland, but mistakenly used a stock image of protests in South America.

The party removed the photo after the false image was reported by news outlets including the Guardian.

“It’s just a meme. Not Portland. But we could easily create a new one with screen shots from Portland, the Oregon GOP posted on X after the flap, according to the Oregonian.