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Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday at the downtown waterfront to protest President Donald Trump and federal overreach, hundreds of them wearing the inflatable animal costumes that have come to define Portland’s defiance of federal immigration officials.
Organizers with No Kings Portland and Indivisible said they expected at least as many as the 50,000 people who protested in June. The exact attendance this go-round wasn’t clear—The Oregonian said police estimated 40,000 people, but the bureau would not confirm that count to WW—but a march that doubled back on itself wound throughout downtown and over the Morrison Bridge.
“We are vibrant, colorful, kind and we are not taking the bait for those who wish to incite us to violence so they can have their little Fox News moment,” said No Kings Portland organizer Toro, who addressed the crowd.
Though many protesters were also here in June, the context now, they say, is much different. A sanctuary city, Portland has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate, with regular immigration raids and an attempt by the president to deploy National Guard troops from three states to guard the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility from protesters. And two weeks into a federal government shutdown, Trump has unilaterally cut billions in funding to blue states and cities.
The first No Kings March in June concluded with some participants walking to the ICE facility two miles south of downtown—and few nights have passed since without standoffs between protesters and federal agents. It’s that scene that prompted Trump to attempt a troop deployment, and it was where a viral video captured a protester in an inflatable frog costume being pepper-sprayed by a federal agent. That moment inspired what is now a nationwide phenomenon of marching amphibians. The New York Times reported that the frogs were a common sight from coast to coast today.
Amid a program of speeches and songs near the Battleship Oregon Memorial, a group called Operation Inflation handed out more than 100 free inflatable costumes. Nearby, a man in a blow-up eagle suit said Amazon had sold out of the frog variety.
Attendees were dressed as chickens, tacos, handmaids and dinosaurs. There were diaper-wearing baby Trumps. A trio portrayed a convincing lion, tin man and scarecrow a la The Wizard of Oz. In their signs and costumes, many incorporated frogs—one common meme read “HOP” while other signs featured the Bible verse Exodus 8:2.
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U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter joined in, sporting a green frog hat as she swayed arm-in-arm with an amphibian contingent to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”
“I have a duty to be here,” she told WW. “We must stand up to the facism that’s rising in this country and show that it has no place here.”
Saturday’s protest was one of more than 2,600 planned around the country. Several were organized in the outlying Portland area—Tigard, West Linn, Lake Oswego, Beaverton to name a few—which some on the waterfront said may have diluted the Portland protest’s attendance.
Participating in his first protest was Ronald Krotoszynski Jr., author and professor of law at the University of Alabama School of Law. He compared Saturday’s event to the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of the Civil Rights era.
“I was curious to see what mass protest looks like, but I also felt an obligation,” Krotoszynski told WW. “Our system of government depends on checks and balances, and Congress has completely abdicated its responsibility to serve as a check on the executive branch. Trump has closed cabinet agencies. He’s rescinded appropriations. This is not how our government is supposed to function. I suspect the Parliament in 1776 represented a more meaningful check to George III than the contemporary Congress has been to Trump.”
Speakers before the march began ranged from politicians to clergy. Representing a coalition of interfaith leaders, Rev. Mark Knutson of Augustana Lutheran Church had the entire crowd greet their neighbors as he would to start a Sunday service. Portland City Councilor Sameer Kanal led the crowd in a chant of, “We are unstoppable. Another world is possible.” A singer got them singing Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down.”
Near the stage, a man wearing a cardboard crown implored attendees through a megaphone that there was indeed a king: Jesus Christ. Otherwise, contrary voices were largely absent.
Saturday’s event was not formally tied to the ongoing protests outside the ICE facility on the South Waterfront, two miles away, though some protesters were expected to head there later in the evening. The facility has become the scene of national attention and after dark, police have regularly dispersed rowdy crowds with pepper spray and tear gas.