Is trumps rash of violence now in Portland for distractions?

It's him acting out. He's too simple-minded.

Look at the times he's done things after something really bad comes out , or is about to come out, and he uses the media to reduce the impact . I believe this is his pattern to have for that purpose . Yes he does bad things regularly , and he uses the media for this regularly to promote chaos with . He especially does this to guide the media towards a news cycle he thinks will benefit him . He did this a lot before he got into office by promoting his propaganda . His poll numbers are dropping like a rock now , so this was expected. At least I did, and a lot more coming. I'm not dismissing his actions , its exposing his patterns doing this, and using the media to do it, any way he can. He knows the virus is kicking his ass, among other news he wants to go away now.This way he can promote law and order, then claim Biden is against it, while he abuses laws , and promotes disorder.

because you are a fucking authoritarian thug piece of shit.

He is just a fucked up person that wants to harm others and treat people this way.

To say it's just a distraction is downplaying his evil views and just fucked up incompetence .

It's part of that. No, it's not a distraction; it's part of the campaign strategy of running as the "law'n'order" candidate. Snatching people off the street to make that place look like it's dangerous - paints him as "willing to do tough things", which he thinks his base and undecided voters want (true about the former, probably not the latter), may decrease turnout in those cities, may give him excuses to grab more power.

No, he's not intentionally hurting the Republicans; he is an authoritarian narcissist, and therefore thinks most people agree with him and want him to smash the libs. He has repeatedly told the police to rough up their suspects.