Trump's show of force in Portland, of all places, is not giving him the great campaign clips he wanted. Instead, the protests are growing, and now it looks like the police unions are lobbying directly for the federal intervention -- probably because cops are so pissed off by the "defund police" movement that they want to retaliate with chaos in the streets. Via the Daily Beast:

Although Portland leadership roundly decried the federal presence, the president of Portland’s police union met with the head of the Department of Homeland Security last week to discuss the agents, apparently without the knowledge of the city’s police chief. The president of Chicago’s police union made his own envoys, asking Trump for federal intervention.

Trump might have heard him: 150 federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations are gearing up to head to the city, the Chicago Tribune first reported. Either way, protesters say local cops and the feds are clearly colluding.

And we know in Philadelphia that FOP union chief John McNesby is in touch with Trump. Mystery solved, Scoobies!

In the meantime, the #PDXDadPod and #PortlandMoms turned out by the thousands last night. There will probably be more tonight.

If there's one thing we know about Trump, it's that he doesn't learn from experience. So he's doubling down:

And so are the moms and dads of Portland: