How wacky inflatable costumes are changing the narrative around U.S. protests

It started with a few people in inflatable frog costumes protesting outside an immigration detention centre in Portland, Ore.

Then, the frogs multiplied. And pretty soon, they were joined in solidarity by all manner of inflatable creatures, both real and mythical.

Now, whether it’s the ongoing protests against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Portland and Los Angeles, or the massive No Kings rallies that swept across the U.S. this weekend, the crowds are full of cutesy, cartoonish and colourful chickens, lobsters, dinosaurs, axolotls, unicorns and more.

The photographs paint a stark contrast to the picture painted by U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration of “war-ravaged” cities under siege by dangerous rioters. 

And that, protesters say, is the whole point.

“We’re trying to show how absurd it is when the administration here and leadership of ICE … says that the protesters are rabid dogs or violent or whatever,” Portland protester Brooks Brown told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“Instead, the reality is they’re kids, adults, people of all ages who are just incredibly impassioned seeing violence being done to those around them and wanting to protect the most vulnerable in our society.”

Brown is the co-founder of Operation Inflation, an organization that takes donations from the public and uses them to buy inflatable costumes to outfit anti-ICE protesters.

You can often find them at Portland rallies with a U-haul full of inflatable suits, doling them out to anyone who wants one.  

“We have an upside-down clown. We have a regular clown. We have, of course, the famous frog, wiener dog, unicorn, inverted unicorn, blue unicorn, wacky-waving-inflatable-arms-flailing tube guy, raccoons — basically anything we can get our hands on,” he said. 

“We think the image of these people helps shift the narrative away from the demonization of the protesters to instead showing exactly where the violence is originating. And over and over again we’re able to see that it is ICE, it is the police, it is the leadership, who are visiting violence.”

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

For Maral Karimi, a Toronto Metropolitan University professor who studies protest and social movements, the photos of these costumed crusaders are “captivating.”

“These are very powerful visual symbols,” she said. “To me, they’re pointing to Trump’s inflated ego.”

Karimi says this protest tactic serves many purposes, some rhetorical and some downright practical.

“It serves as a sort of a disguise that lowers the barrier to participation in these protests, which is something that has not been, at least in recent history, a problem in the Western … democratic world,” she said.

“But as the country has been increasingly moving towards more authoritarianism, people are afraid, and so they need to disguise themselves to shield themselves from potential legal reprisals and surveillance.”

Surveillance and demonization of protesters is not a new phenomenon in the U.S., she says, but it’s one she believes is ramping up under Trump. 

“If you wear a balaclava or gas mask or things like that … often states attribute those to criminals,” she said.

“But if you’re wearing these funny inflatables, first of all, they can’t tell your race. They can’t tell if you’re a man or a woman or a child or Black or white or whoever you are. They can’t put you in the same basket as any other group. Like, what’s a chicken? What’s a dinosaur?”

That’s especially important, she says, now that the Trump administration has branded Antifa, a loose network of anti-fascist organizers and demonstrators, as a terrorist organization. 

“It’s a way for the participants to kind of tie Trump’s hand behind his back and kind of meet him to fight him with his own rhetoric of mockery,” Karimi said.

‘We stand with frogs’

But while the protesters’ identities are hidden, their solidarity shines through. 

An inflatable green alien in New York City on Saturday held a sign that read: “We stand with frogs.” A giant inflatable lobster in Boston similarly declared on a placard: “Lobsters stand with frogs.”

Meanwhile, back in Portland, the now many frogs are standing side-by-side, with banners that read: “Frogs stronger together.”

In recent months, Trump and his allies have painted anti-ICE protests as dangerous and “anti-American” — especially in cities where he’s deploying national troops.

Republicans echoed those refrains ahead of Saturday’s No King protests against what participants see as the government’s swift drift into authoritarianism under Trump. 

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday referred to the No Kings protest in Washington, D.C., as “the hate America rally.”

Others, like Majority Leader Steve Scalise, have accused protest organizers of stoking an atmosphere that they said might spur political violence, pointing to signs that read “86-47,” a restaurant term for nixing a menu item and a potential reference to assassination.

But the protests on Saturday were, by all reports, largely peaceful. Police in New York City, Austin and Washington all reported no arrests. 

A day after No Kings, the Washington Post asked the White House for comment on the inflatable costume trend. 

“It’s impressive how these ‘protesters’ constantly find ways to make themselves look even dumber,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. 

Brooks says he isn’t worried about this pivot in the rhetoric. 

“The fact that they’re dismissing it as not serious, to me, screams that they think it is serious,” he said. 

“They’re very aware that no one is dismissing any of the protesters due to this. They’re just trying to do anything they can to make us go back to something that they can demonize.”