In yet another embarrassing stumble for the Trump White House, a senior official accidentally exposed plans to send the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division into Portland, Oregon. The kicker? He did it on Signal. In public. In Minnesota.
According to a Star Tribune report published Friday, Anthony Salisbury—a top deputy to Trump adviser Stephen Miller—was seen openly using the encrypted messaging app Signal while traveling in Minnesota. Multiple people saw him discussing sensitive military plans, and at least one concerned witness contacted the newspaper directly.
The messages revealed internal conversations between Salisbury and other senior Trump-aligned operatives, including Patrick Weaver, an adviser to Pete Hegseth. At the center of the chatter was a plan to deploy the 82nd Airborne Division—one of the U.S. military’s elite quick reaction forces—into Portland.
Just for context: the 82nd Airborne isn’t your run-of-the-mill National Guard unit. This is a battle-hardened division known for parachuting into active combat zones. They’ve seen action in both World Wars, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Now, the White House was talking about sending them to Oregon.
In the Signal messages, Weaver appeared to acknowledge the political risk of such a move. “Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver wrote.
He continued: “82nd is like our top tier [quick reaction force] for abroad. So it will cause a lot of headlines. Probably why he wants potus to tell him to do it.”
Ultimately, Trump backed off the idea of deploying the 82nd and instead sent in 200 National Guard troops—a move already sparking legal pushback from both Portland and the state of Oregon. Lawsuits have been filed to block the deployment.
The White House, rather than deny the leak, took aim at the press. Abigail Jackson, spokesperson for the administration, told The Daily Beast:
“Tony recently traveled to Minnesota to serve as a pallbearer in his uncle’s funeral who passed away from cancer. Despite dealing with grief from the loss of a family member, Tony continued his important work on behalf of the American people.”
She added: “Nothing in these private conversations, that are shamefully being reported on by morally bankrupt reporters, is new or classified information. Frankly, this story just shows the entire Trump Administration is working around the clock—and even through funerals—to make America safe again.”
This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has gotten burned by mishandling secure communications. Earlier this year, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally added to a Signal group chat where top officials were discussing a potential strike on the Houthis in Yemen. That incident—nicknamed “Signalgate”—led to the resignation of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. Trump later appointed him Ambassador to the United Nations.
The broader push to flood Democrat-run cities with federal troops has become one of Trump’s hallmark policies in his second term. He’s repeatedly said that violent, “out of control” cities should be used as real-world training environments for U.S. troops. During a visit to D.C. on August 21, Trump told top generals he believed cities like Portland offered “perfect live scenarios” for urban warfare drills.
The problem? Americans aren’t on board. After looking at recent polling, CNN analyst Harry Enten told viewers: “If Donald Trump thinks that potentially sending in the National Guard into cities like Portland is a winning political issue, the polling says you’re wrong, Mr. President!”
Trump also suffered a major legal setback when a federal judge ruled that his deployment of National Guard forces in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act—a law that prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. Judge Charles Breyer found that armed soldiers had been improperly used to perform policing duties.
To make matters worse, the White House has admitted to “reconfiguring” official crime stats after Trump dismissed existing numbers as “phony.” Critics say it’s part of a larger attempt to paint blue cities as war zones in order to justify heavy-handed federal interventions.
