An estimated crowd of 2,000 people participating in the
protests in Portland, Oregon, “tore open the doors of a federal courthouse and then beat back the agents inside” in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a journalist on the scene reported on
Twitter. Bellingcat writer Robert Evans posted multiple videos online that appeared to show federal agents
shooting what are assumed to be non-lethal projectiles at protesters, including a parents group, Wall of Moms, out of “murder holes” in a wooden structure built around the courthouse to protect it. The new clashes represent a further escalation in the conflict between
protesters and federal agents sent into the city by the
Trump Administration. Trump praised federal law enforcement agents on Monday, saying they were doing a “fantastic job” in Portland and said he planned to replicate the response in other major U.S. cities led by
Democratic mayors and escalate the crisis.