People Are Calling Out Exactly Why The Inflatable Frog Protesters In Portland Are So Effective

How do you counter a false narrative from someone as powerful as the President of the United States? Some protesters in Portland, Oregon, may have figured out the answer.

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump is well known for his embellishments of the truth, alternative facts, and outright lies. It's been a hallmark of his career in business—leading to multiple legal entanglements over fraud, the dissolution of Trump family charities, multiple financial settlements and fines, loss of his New York business licenses, and 34 felonies.

Lying—constantly, about everything—is also Trump's most prominent trait as POTUS.

A firm believer in the teachings of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Trump also uses the Big Lie method Goebbels and Adolf Hitler perfected.

Goebbels is often associated with the statement:

"Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth."

Goebbels may not have said those exact words, but it is a law of propaganda he employed to great effect which Trump has firmly embraced, repeating misinformation so often that the gullible believe it and others no longer react to it.

Trump employed this same method when trying to overturn his obvious, overwhelming defeat in the 2020 presidential election to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Trump's Big Lie was so effective that he incited a coup attempt at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, that caused at least five deaths, injured over 150 members of law enforcement, and caused millions of dollars in damages. Trump pardoned all involved to further his alternate version of reality.

Now Trump is trying to use a campaign of lies and misinformation to target major cities in blue states.

Whether to discredit people cited as possible Democratic candidates in the 2028 presidential election or to invent crises where none exist—or while ignoring the same issues being statistically worse in red states—to increase his executive powers with a fake state of emergency, the Trump administration and their cronies have been describing blue state cities like Los Angeles, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; and Portland, Oregon as "war zones."

The Department of Homeland Security's masked, warrantless Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been weaponized to harass, abduct, and brutalize anyone they want, including elected officials. Trump has also deployed the National Guard—sometimes crossing state lines—and active duty military to suppress people's First Amendment rights to free speech and protest.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has used the courts and social media to counter Trump, trolling the POTUS with the same brand of ridiculous rhetoric and self-aggrandizing Trump and his White House handlers employ.

But the protesters pushing back against the Trump administration's racist violence against Hispanic and other non-white immigrants and U.S.-born citizens in Portland, Oregon, have chosen a different response.

Portland protesters "keep Portland weird"—a popular slogan that appears throughout the city—by having inflatable frogs, unicorns, bears, and other cute critters face off against violent federal agents and any local police forces that choose to support them instead of protecting city residents.

It's also not a great look to be caught on film attacking an inflatable frog.

Used to pepper-spraying and beating peaceful protesters or shooting praying Presbyterian pastors in the head, Trump's Gestapo seems flat-footed when faced with a dancing frog.

Although some eventually decided to use their usual tactics.

But the frog was apparently unfazed, quipping to The Oregonian:

"I've definitely had spicier tamales."

The frog that started it all, Seth Todd, spoke out recently, explaining their decision to keep Portland protests weird.

Todd told a local reporter from the Majority Report:

"I come out here day in and day out since June because I am worried about my community. I am concerned with what is happening in my community."

"I don’t want to see anybody treated inhumanely, and to see this happen to my community members, my friends, my family, my neighbors, it's unacceptable."

"So, I'm out here protesting in a frog costume—especially in a frog costume—just to show how ridiculous the notion that we are violent terrorists is. It's just to showcase how that narrative is wrong, and it does a lot more damage than good."

People are loving the amphibians, unicorns, and bears (oh, my) and what they represent.

A member of the subsequently formed Portland frog brigade told The Oregonian:

"The frog has become a symbol of what's going on down here. And so, we've decided to come support our friend Toad [Seth Todd], who's been out here. You probably saw him on the news, and you know, he's a friend from another pond."

The brigade said they're pushing back against Trump's "insane government overreach" based on the White House's false claims that Portland is "a disaster," "war-ravaged" and "on fire."

The frog countered Trump's false narrative, stating:

"Which it's not [a war zone], because we're here."

"This is all over the internet now, so it only makes sense that more frogs join in this fight."

And other critters, as well.

Kudos—and keep Portland weird, folks.