Federal and local authority clashes as Trump feuds with Portland Mayor

In his continued feud with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, President Donald Trump again took to Twitter today to threaten unspecified federal action in the city after street-level violence in the city left one man dead.

“Portland is a mess, and it has been for many years. If this joke of a mayor doesn’t clean it up, we will go in and do it for them!” the president tweeted this morning. The president’s statement comes on the heels of ongoing violent clashes in the city between various left- and right-wing demonstrators and extremists.

The most recent violence occurred on Sunday, when a caravan of Trump-supporters and right-wing agitators drove through downtown Portland. Videos show members of the caravan shooting paintballs and spraying what looks like pepper spray at counter protestors, some of which responded violently. While details remain unclear, one member of the caravan whas shot dead, CNN reports.

At a Sunday press conference, Mayor Wheeler blamed the violence in the city in part on the president. “Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President,” he asked, per NPR, “why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence? It’s you who have created the hate and the division.”

Trump responded via twitter later that afternoon. “Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his City during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should go on forever. Wrong! Portland will never recover with a fool for a Mayor….,” Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon.