The Great Lie of Portland - How Fox News Feeds Trump and Turns a City Into an Enemy Image

It is the pattern that repeats itself over and over: right-wing media stage a distorted image of reality, and a president who long ago stopped distinguishing between truth and propaganda eagerly seizes upon it. This happened in recent days when Donald Trump told journalists in Washington that he was considering deploying the National Guard to Portland. Not because there was an acute security crisis there - but because he had seen a television report that portrayed the city as a hotspot of leftist violence. The reality is different: in Portland, small groups of dozens of people have been demonstrating for weeks in front of an ICE building, far from the city center, peacefully and visibly - protests that are part of everyday democratic life. It is enough to mix a few real shots with old, dramatic images, to use tear gas directly against harmless protesters - and the pretext for deploying the military is ready.

But Fox News turned it into the downfall of Western civilization. In a deliberately edited broadcast, the network mixed current images of a few dozen demonstrators with dramatic footage from 2020, when tens of thousands took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd. These images - tear gas, street battles, a man being pepper sprayed in the face at close range by federal agents - were presented as "evidence" of an ongoing left-wing threat. The only real reference: a few days ago protesters actually set up a symbolic guillotine in front of the ICE building - an action on September 1, 2025, which was immediately answered by federal agents with tear gas. Fox used this real, isolated scene as a hook to merge it with archival footage and thus create the impression of a continued civil war. A textbook example of manipulation: context destroyed, history rewritten, fear stoked. And Trump fell for it. Or worse: he knew what he was doing.

"Trump wants to make it believable that he does not know from which year the images are."

"These people are paid. They are terrorists, they are paid agitators," he ranted, just as he did in 2020, and announced that he would "wipe them out." Language that barely conceals that it is not about order but about enemy combat. He paints a picture of Portland "like in hell," speaks of a destroyed city - while on the ground the mayor explains that the police have the situation under control, that they are proud to protect freedom of expression, and that they will avoid any unnecessary escalation. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced that he would legally challenge any deployment of federal troops: "The president may have a lot of power, but he has to stay in his lane - and if not, we will hold him accountable."

We did the test. For ten minutes we put the Fox video on our own Facebook page - accompanied by epic words that deliberately exaggerated the drama to show how such images work. In those ten minutes, interactions skyrocketed, comments became angrier, the threat scenario suddenly felt real. Then we put the truth against it: current footage from the South Waterfront, a few dozen people with banners, peaceful, a city that is not burning. This contrast was shocking - and it showed how easy it is to manipulate the perception of an entire country. Such fake news is not harmless. They can cost human lives when they justify violence, and they can manipulate elections when they turn fear into political currency.

The danger is real. Those who do not recognize these mechanisms, who accept them, get used to a new normal in which lies and fear determine political business. That is why it cannot be said often enough: do not believe a single word Fox News says. Check images, question narratives, do not listen to those who only talk about violence in order to legitimize violence themselves. Portland is not hell. It is a city where people are exercising their fundamental rights. The violence here comes from the state, from tear gas, rubber bullets, from a president who plays with the worst reflexes.

Those who want to understand how countries become brutalized must look here. It does not start with tanks in the streets, it starts with images, with headlines, with the constant narrative of the enemy within. The poison works slowly, but it works. And that is precisely why we must resist - against the lie, against the hate, against the attempt to turn a democracy into a siege scenario. The lesson from Portland is this: we must not leave the power of interpretation to these people. Not to Trump, not to Fox, not to the imitators in Europe. Otherwise, one day you will really wake up in hell - a hell they created themselves.