Fox News and the Misleading Story of Portland’s ICE Protests — ProPublica
Fox News aired misleading coverage of Portland ICE protests in early September 2025, featuring footage from 2020 without proper labeling and presenting a distorted picture of events that directly influenced President Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops to the city. ProPublica's review of over 700 social media videos and Fox News broadcasts found the network repeatedly mislabeled 2020 footage as 2025, including scenes from the federal courthouse and a Navy veteran being pepper-sprayed—events occurring five years earlier during George Floyd protests.
On September 4, Fox News aired a segment Trump watched that evening or the night before, prompting his statement that Portland was "like living in hell" and "like World War II." The segment spliced 2020 images into coverage of current ICE facility protests, with on-screen text and chyrons labeling protesters as "violent demonstrators," "rioters," and "anti-ICE Portland rioters." Fox added an editor's note acknowledging the 2020 footage at least two weeks after broadcast, but the damage was already done—Trump announced September 27 he would deploy troops with "Full Force, if necessary."
Investigation revealed that most clashes between protesters and police in the three months before the September 4 broadcast resulted in no criminal charges or arrests alleging protester violence. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's aide Anthony Salisbury exchanged messages about military deployment, and Trump threatened Oregon Governor Tina Kotek with federal troop deployment unless she "got her state in order," claiming ICE facilities were "under siege" by "Antifa and other domestic terrorists."
Fox News also recycled footage of a neighbor confronting protesters, first airing it on September 5 as occurring on September 2, then again on September 6 claiming it happened September 3. The video was actually filmed and posted online June 29—nearly three months earlier. Federal authorities announced no arrests on either September night the network claimed the incident occurred, and only 20 people remained near the ICE facility on September 3, with just 4 on the sidewalk, according to Portland police records.
After Trump's September 28 Guard deployment order, Fox News continued the pattern, broadcasting a clip of Governor Kotek stating troops were unnecessary followed immediately by footage of protesters clashing with police—footage labeled as from Illinois, not Oregon. Portland Police Chief Bob Day stated at a September 29 press conference that the city had been inaccurately portrayed and that actual events did not align with the national narrative, describing the coverage as frustrating.
(Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/portland-protests-national-guard-fox-news-coverage)