diff --git a/src/portal/lib/src/create-edit-rule/create-edit-rule.component.ts b/src/portal/lib/src/create-edit-rule/create-edit-rule.component.ts
index 2ecf2ffca1..eb61d1074b 100644
--- a/src/portal/lib/src/create-edit-rule/create-edit-rule.component.ts
+++ b/src/portal/lib/src/create-edit-rule/create-edit-rule.component.ts
@@ -138,8 +138,8 @@ export class CreateEditRuleComponent implements OnInit, OnDestroy {
       });
   }
   trimText(event) {
-    if (event.srcElement.value) {
-      event.srcElement.value = event.srcElement.value.trim();
+    if (event.target.value) {
+      event.target.value = event.target.value.trim();
     }
   }
   equals(c1: any, c2: any): boolean {
diff --git a/src/portal/src/app/project/tag-retention/add-rule/add-rule.component.ts b/src/portal/src/app/project/tag-retention/add-rule/add-rule.component.ts
index 9a6d9ce245..f8cb51bd9d 100644
--- a/src/portal/src/app/project/tag-retention/add-rule/add-rule.component.ts
+++ b/src/portal/src/app/project/tag-retention/add-rule/add-rule.component.ts
@@ -179,6 +179,9 @@ export class AddRuleComponent implements OnInit, OnDestroy {
     }
 
     add() {
+        // remove whitespaces
+        this.rule.scope_selectors.repository[0].pattern = this.rule.scope_selectors.repository[0].pattern.replace(/\s+/g, "");
+        this.rule.tag_selectors[0].pattern = this.rule.tag_selectors[0].pattern.replace(/\s+/g, "");
         if (this.rule.scope_selectors.repository[0].decoration !== "repoMatches"
         && this.rule.scope_selectors.repository[0].pattern.indexOf("**") !== -1) {
             this.inlineAlert.showInlineError(INVALID_RULE);