Scott Rohrbach, a senior optical engineer at NASA, came to the Oct. 18 No Kings rally in Washington, D.C., dressed as a unicorn. He said he wanted to counter the Republican narrative that protesters like him are hate-filled anti-American radicals.
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WASHINGTON, DC — Even before the No Kings rallies began last weekend, some Republicans were casting the protests in a grim light. House Speaker Mike Johnson called them “Hate America” rallies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned they would attract “the most unhinged in the Democratic Party.”
Instead, the gatherings were made especially notable by a fun Noah’s Ark made up of frogs, pandas, koalas, marmots, sharks and lobsters. Taking a cue from the protest playbook in Portland, people showed up dressed in inflatable animal costumes.
In Washington, a poodle and a chicken danced to drum music with three dinosaurs next to the National Gallery, just steps from the U.S. Capitol. Scott Rohrbach, a senior optical engineer at NASA, came dressed as a unicorn. It wasn’t his first choice.
“I would have come as a frog, but I didn’t find a frog,” Rohrbach said, disappointed that all the frog costumes were sold out.
Rohrbach said he came to protest because he feared that under Trump’s presidency, future elections would not be fair. He wore the costume to counter the Republican narrative that protesters like him are hate-filled anti-American radicals.
Inspiration from a frog costume
“One of the things fascists can’t handle is humor,” said Rohrbach, who added that other protesters posed for selfies with him and children gave him high-fives.
President Trump has repeatedly said he is neither a fascist nor a king and has rejected the rallies.
“I think it’s a joke,” he told reporters. “I looked at the people. They are not representative of this country.”
The president responded to the protests with his own humor, posting an AI-generated video of him wearing a crown while flying a plane and throwing what looked like feces at protesters.
So what inspired Rohrbach and so many others to dress up as animals and mythical creatures this past weekend?
It all started earlier this month in Portland. A man in a frog costume was trying to help another protester at an anti-ICE rally. A law enforcement officer responded by spraying the suit’s air valve with a chemical agent. captured on video.
The image of the officer wearing a black helmet and shield chasing the frog-suited protester caught the attention of many people, including Jordy Lybeck, a political streamer. Lybeck began thinking in real time with his viewers.
“How much do these outfits cost?” » Lybeck wondered aloud. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” What if someone bought a lot of them and distributed them around the establishment?
This is exactly what Lybeck and Brooks Brown, who talk about philosophy, did. They raised money online, bought more costumes and drove them to ICE facilities in Portland.
Protesters dressed as chickens, poodles and dinosaurs danced to drum music just steps from the U.S. Capitol. The No Kings demonstration had a carnival feel.
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They call it “Operation Inflation.” The goal: Undermine Trump’s argument that he had to deploy troops because Portland was, as he put it, a “war zone.”
Absurd humor as an effective tactic
“People watching at home saw that we were laughing at lies about Portland being a wasteland of burning nightmares,” Brown told NPR.
He also said the costumes make protesters less threatening — it’s difficult to see or move quickly in an inflatable suit. Brown said he spoke to a police officer at the scene who thought the same thing.
“He said he knew that anyone wearing those suits wouldn’t do something they had to run from,” Brown said, “which is fair, because if you haven’t worn one of those suits, you can’t run in it.”
Brooks Brown, who publishes articles on philosophy, raised money and distributed inflatable animal costumes in Portland earlier this month. He said the strategy was aimed at undermining President Trump’s claim that the protests had turned the city into a “war zone.”
Courtesy of Brooks Brown
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Courtesy of Brooks Brown
Kim Lane Scheppele is a Princeton professor who studies democracy and authoritarianism. She says absurdist humor can be an effective tactic against autocrats, and that’s how she sees Trump. Scheppele recalled a case that occurred in the Siberian city of Barnaul in 2012.
Critics of Vladimir Putin, a candidate for a third Russian presidential term, have placed dozens of children’s toys in the main square. The toys, including teddy bears and Transformers, carried signs criticizing corruption and calling for fair elections.
Toys in Siberia
Barnaul municipal authorities determined that the demonstration was unauthorized. When protesters asked to hold a second demonstration, authorities rejected it on the grounds that the toys were “inanimate objects” and not “Russian citizens”, according to the British Ministry of Defense. Guardian’s Journal and the US government Radio Free Europe.
Scheppele says stunts like this send out a political message while setting a trap for those responsible.
“They do it in such a way that any government response makes them look even worse,” she told NPR.
Brown, the streamer, says dressing up as an animal serves a similar purpose here. He says the funny outfits change the outlook of the protests, making government force seem more like a prank. After all, it’s not easy to describe an inflatable frog – or a unicorn – as the “enemy within.”
