Toad-Trolling Trump, Anti-ICE Protesters at Portland Let Slip the Frogs of War
On BlueSky, the left’s X alternative, many users express intent to join the ribbit revolution.
People cosplaying as frogs are emerging as the new faces of resistance to ICE. It’s a quirky tactic that threatens to undermine the seriousness of their message, but one that gives the leftists of Antifa an opportunity to out-troll President Trump.
The so-called “Frogtifa” stunt created the sort of mystery that births the legends of masked vigilantes. The man inside the first suit, Seth Todd, has now been identified. “It is a strategy,” he tells Le Monde, “to cut the narratives of the Trump administration, which says we are extremely violent.” Antifa, he said, is “protesting, but with humor.”
Mr. Todd, a “gay, non-binary” 24-year-old, posts on a TikTok account as the Antifascist Frog. His profile jokingly proclaims him a “proud Antifa member paid by George Soros,” the billionaire backer of leftist causes. Mr. Todd’s latest TikTok — where he grapples with police — earned a “sensitive content” warning on the app.
The video captures officers knocking protestors to the pavement. Vision and mobility limited, Mr. Todd wobbles, unsteady and absurd. An officer pursues him and squirts irritant into the inflatable suit’s air vent. “Imagine,” Mr. Todd wrote on TikTok, “pepper spaying a f—ing frog.”
A second video, with over 1.4 million views, again hews to the absurd as officers seem unsure what to make of the costumed man. On Thursday, the “Daily Show” included the encounter in a comedic montage of “real footage from Portland,” advising “viewer discretion.”
Mr. Todd is seen thrusting his hips as he confronts a phalanx of law enforcement, his shouts muffled by the costume and unintelligible. Officers — some wearing fatigues, others brandishing riot shields — retreat. “This,” the TikTok caption reads, “is the war-ravaged city that Trump is talking about,” followed by crying laughing emojis. “Crazy.”
In Mr. Todd’s first TikTok post, he dances a silent pantomime. The cumulative effect is to make a farce of the entire situation. ICE is rendered ridiculous, even as the frog’s presence strips Antifa protesters of the menace that has drawn the Trump Administration’s intervention.
On Instagram, however, Mr. Todd struck a darker tone more in line with White House warnings. “Someone,” he wrote, “just needs to bomb this administration. This government needs to burn, and a bullet needs to be put in every one of Trump’s cronies heads.”
In a post on X, Mr. Todd described Mr. Trump as a “fascist tyrant Nazi.” He extrapolated that supporting him “makes you a Nazi” and “the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi.” After having these social media posts reported and deleting them, the angry amphibian issued an apology via London’s Telegraph.
“I’m not violent in any way,” Mr. Todd wrote. “I don’t have any desire to cause harm to anybody. These are just more things said out of frustration, and I obviously need to be more careful with what I say.” Yet his tadpole alter ego had, by then, taken on a life of its own.
“Portland’s Protest Frogs Are Multiplying,” the Oregonian reported on Thursday, joined by several others in animal costumes. “Frogs together strong,” a sign held by one read, a play on the simian slogan from 2017’s “The Planet of the Apes” film.
“The frog,” one costumed man said, “has become a symbol.” He and his fellow frogs had dressed up to “support” Mr. Todd, oppose “insane government overreach,” and push back on descriptions of Portland as “an explosive, fire-ridden … war land.” One of the other frogs waved in agreement, drawing a chuckle from their unseen interviewer.
On BlueSky, an X alternative on the left, many users expressed intent to join the ribbit revolution. “Just bought mine!” one woman wrote, along with an image of the costume Mr. Todd wore on sale. Amazon sold more than 200 in the past month at $45.99, although how many were bought by protesters and how many for Halloween is impossible to say.
Expect the number of costumed protesters in the political pond to increase, conveying an aura of silliness that stands in stark contrast to armed ICE officers. Each viral spectacle they create will inspire more frogs to hop into action, muddying the issue of law enforcement and helping Antifa to greenwash its violent tactics.
