Noem has previously echoed the president’s claims that a small band of protesters, who have rallied in their dozens outside the Ice facility in Portland, Oregon since June, including one who wears an inflatable frog costume, are “terrorists” who have placed the office “under siege”, making the deployment of federal troops essential.
On Saturday, a federal judge in Portland blocked Trump’s effort to federalize Oregon’s national guard, determining that the president’s claims that the largely peaceful city was “burning to the ground” were “untethered to the facts”.