PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Republican Party is facing backlash after posting a fabricated image on social media to promote President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to Portland. The image, shared Sunday on the party’s official Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) accounts, turned out to be a composite of two unrelated photographs — both taken years ago in South America.
Fake Image Used to Support Trump’s Narrative
The posts appeared shortly before a federal judge blocked Trump’s order to send California National Guard troops into Oregon. In their caption, Oregon Republicans praised the deployment, writing:
“President Trump on Sunday deployed 300 California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon after a judge ruled that the Oregon National Guard could not be deployed to keep federal facilities and personnel in Portland safe.”
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Accompanying the statement was an image that seemed to show a chaotic confrontation: a line of riot police facing a crowd of protesters holding red flares against a smoke-filled night sky — a scene apparently intended to illustrate Trump’s false claim that Portland was “burning to the ground.”
South American Photos, Not Portland
However, journalists and social media users quickly noticed inconsistencies in the photo. Upon closer inspection, the police officers’ shields were marked with the word “Policia” — Spanish or Portuguese for “police” — indicating the image was not taken in the United States.
The Guardian traced the source to a Getty Images photo uploaded in 2008, labeled “South American riot police.” While the original description did not name a country, related images by the same photographer identified the location as Ecuador, with visible insignia from an Ecuadorian police unit.
The other half of the composite came from a 2017 Pexels image by Brazilian photographer Maurício Mascaro, titled “Anonymous people standing on street among smoke during protests at night.” The stock photo, taken during a protest in Brazil, was freely available online and not connected to any events in Oregon.
‘We’re Not Reporters, Just Bad Memers’
When a Guardian reporter pointed out the fabrication on social media, the Oregon Republican Party’s X account responded dismissively:
“We’re not reporters, just bad memers.”
The comment drew criticism from journalists, local officials, and online users who accused the party of spreading misinformation to inflame public opinion and justify Trump’s attempts to federalize National Guard forces.
Context: Small Protests, Big Misinformation
The misleading post contrasted sharply with reality. Recent protests in Portland — largely held outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office — have been small and mostly peaceful, far from the large-scale riots implied in the party’s post.
The image’s circulation underscores how disinformation and political propaganda have amplified tensions amid national debates over immigration enforcement and federal intervention in local law enforcement.
Judge Blocks Federal Deployment
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued a temporary restraining order Sunday night blocking Trump from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon. The decision followed a legal challenge from Oregon and California, arguing that the president’s actions violated constitutional limits on military involvement in civil matters.
As of Monday, the Oregon GOP had not removed the post or issued a correction. The party’s lighthearted response — calling itself “bad memers” — has only added to the criticism that state Republicans are trivializing misinformation during a time of heightened political tension.
For now, the doctored image stands as another example of how viral visuals — even fake ones — can fuel political narratives far removed from the facts on the ground in Portland.
