Ever since Donald Trump claimed that Portland was a “war-ravaged” city overrun by Antifa, colorful animal costumes have become commonplace at protest rallies.
Thousands of the cartoonish outfits were seen at the nationwide No Kings rallies which took place on Saturday and were organized to protest the president’s continued attempts to crackdown on his political opponents.
Although Trump has long claimed that the marches are organized by Antifa, which he considers a “domestic terrorist group,” protest-goers say that they hope that the colorful outfits change the narrative around the rallies.
Jordy, a livestreamer known for wearing the inflatable costumes, said that the outfits are intended to “de-escalate” interactions between protesters and ICE agents.
“When you have people in inflatables bouncing around … it’s going to be very difficult to say this was a war zone, this was a riot,” Jordy told Oregon Live. “It de-escalates with ICE, it de-escalates with protesters, it de-escalates with counter-protesters — and, ironically enough, the pepper balls bounce right off.”
The outfits have become so popular that he even launched a website named Operation Inflation, which allows people to donate money to provide free costumes at the protests and outside ICE buildings.
The frog is the central symbol of the movement and has been nicknamed the Portland Frog, after a video surfaced online which appears to show federal officers firing a chemical spray directly at the air vent of a protestor’s costume.
The video, which shows the moment that Seth Todd was sprayed by ICE agents, has been seen by millions on TikTok.
Speaking to Oregon Live, he said that he was hit with the liquid after he went to help a fellow protester who was “shoved really hard to the ground.”
As a member of Portland’s Latino community, he said that Trump’s government needs to reexamine its treatment of minorities in America.
“Whether they are here legally or not, they should be treated as a human being because that’s what they are. That’s what we are,” he said. “We are humans, and we are not supposed to be treating other people unfairly just because we have the power to do so.”
According to an official statement by No Kings, the group which organised Saturday’s nationwide rallies, nearly 7 million people attended protests across the country. Many of them were wearing costumes in solidarity with Todd.
“Today, millions of Americans stood together to reject authoritarianism and remind the world that our democracy belongs to the people, not to one man’s ambition,” Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, the co-founders of the progressive group Indivisible, said in the statement. “Authoritarians want us to believe resistance is futile, but every person who turned out today proved the opposite.
“This movement isn’t about a single protest; it’s about a growing chorus of Americans who refuse to be ruled. Trump may want a crown, but in this country, there are no kings.”
