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The state of Oregon's Democratic senator, Senator Merkley, has entered the 16-hour milestone of a marathon speech on the Senate floor, stating that Donald Trump is behaving like an authoritarian, including by deploying the military into his hometown of the city of Portland.

The senator, aged 68, began speaking around 6.20pm on Tuesday evening and persisted with few interruptions into the early hours of Wednesday. Positioned on the chamber floor alongside placards that displayed “authoritarianism is here now!” and “Trump is violating the law”, Merkley has paused only to take questions from other Democratic lawmakers.

“I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We’re in the most perilous moment, the most significant danger to our nation since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our constitution,” Merkley declared as he started his remarks.

Merkley spoke a day after an appellate court had allowed the chief executive to deploy the state guard into Portland over the objections of local leaders, who say there is no merit to the president’s claim that the city is a “war zone”. The president has also ordered a comparable dispatch of troops into the city of Chicago, where federal agents are carrying out an aggressive crackdown targeting people they believe to be illegal migrants. The nation's highest court is set to review a legal challenge to that move.

Deployments and Political Retaliation

The senator touched on those deployments to cities that are predominantly liberal, as well as additional examples where the commander-in-chief is perceived as retaliating against his opponents, such as the legal accusations a specially appointed federal prosecutor has filed against the New York state attorney general, Attorney General James, and ex-FBI chief James Comey.

“Equal justice under law – that’s the vision here in America. Not unequal injustice, which the president is advancing by wielding state authority and going after persons that he dislikes or perceives to be adversaries,” the senator stated.

“Such actions are typical of distant dictatorships, and you go, it couldn't occur here, but it is happening right here, right now.”

Background and Past Events

Merkley’s speech is the second occurrence this year in which a Democratic senator has staged a lengthy floor speech to condemn the administration's policies. About two months after Trump’s inauguration, Senator Booker of New Jersey addressed the chamber for 25 hours and five minutes, setting a new record for the longest speech ever by a single senator.

Merkley has responded to queries from a small group of fellow Democrats, including Senator Durbin of Illinois, Representative Kim of New Jersey, and Senator Booker, who cautioned: “We are seeing a time now that if we do not ring the alarm bells, more and more Americans will be harmed by a national leader who is acting more like an autocrat than a democratically chosen official.”

Government Shutdown Context

Merkley’s speech occur on the 22nd consecutive day of the federal funding lapse that began at the start of the month, when Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on legislation to continue financing beyond the end of September.

The Senate has conducted 11 failed ballots on a Republican-backed bill to extend funding through November 21, which the Democratic bloc have blocked because it lacks healthcare funding that they are insisting on, as well as restrictions on Trump’s use of rescissions to slash funding authorized by lawmakers.

The GOP leadership in the Senate were expected to hold a twelfth ballot on the bill on Wednesday.