Todd added that he finds it “unacceptable” that the Trump administration has deployed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other federal agents to Portland, which President Donald Trump and other officials have baselessly described as “war-ravaged” and “under siege from attack by Antifa,” referring to protesters who oppose fascism.
Local reports have made clear that the agents themselves are escalating violence in Portland—using tear gas and pepper balls to stop community members, including Todd, from protesting near an ICE facility.
Last week, a federal agent was filmed shooting pepper spray directly into the air vent of Todd’s inflatable frog costume.
“I don’t want to see anyone treated inhumanely and to see this happen to my community members, my friends, my family, my neighbors,” Todd said Thursday.
The Telegraph‘s sensationalist reporting emphasized since-deleted comments on social media, including one in which Todd self-identified as a “little gay nonbinary toad and proud Antifa terrorist.”
The president last month signed an executive order claiming he had the authority to designate antifa—which is not an organization—as a domestic terrorist group. The term is a portmanteau of anti-fascist and refers to the ideology held by individuals and groups who oppose authoritarianism.
The newspaper quoted a family member of Todd’s who said: ”I’ve talked to him over and over again about it, if you want to protest, that’s fine. Let’s do it peacefully.“
The Telegraph did not include any description of any act of violence perpetrated by Todd, however.
Todd has been wearing the frog costume to protests since June ”just to show how ridiculous the notion that we are violent terrorists is,” the protester explained in the Thursday interview. “It’s just to showcase how that narrative is wrong and does a lot more damage than good.”
Reporting on the latest news out of Oregon, where a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked the president from deploying the National Guard in Portland last week, The Oregonian also struck an absurdist note on Friday:
The Oregonian/OregonLive fact-checked seven suspect claims made at President Trump’s antifa roundtable earlier this week that featured prominent administration officials and independent journalists with right-wing viewpoints.
We found: Portland is not on fire or bombed out.
Fact: Portland Fire & Rescue responded to four calls about fires near the ICE building since June 6, according to fire department data.
Fact: The last recorded bomb to explode near Portland was 2008.
Todd, the outlet added, is not the only Portland resident who has used a costume while confronting ICE agents.
“Our reporters at the ICE building Thursday night counted several frogs, a unicorn, a polar bear, an axolotl, a raccoon, a peacock, a shark, and a cat among about 100 regularly dressed people,” reported The Oregonian. “The nightly protest proved uneventful as darkness fell and protesters and counterprotesters started to gather. The herd of animal costumes stood out. Or was it a flock?”
Despite the calm atmosphere, reported the outlet, “rooftop officers used their pepper ball guns several times when protesters got particularly close to the officers on the ground.”
Another demonstrator who has donned a chicken costume at Portland protests told Willamette Week on Thursday that the use of animal suits has helped to poke holes in the overarching strategy the Trump administration is using to invade cities including Chicago, Memphis, and Washington, DC.
“What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid,” said Jack Dickinson. “It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [US Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.”
“It feels like we’re winning this,” added Dickinson. “They’re not getting the footage they’re looking for. They look ridiculous.”
