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An Oregon man is going viral after accidentally setting himself on fire while trying to burn the American flag outside the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland on Saturday.
The viral video shows the fire briefly igniting part of the man’s clothing. However, he quickly put it out as others tried to help him. It is unclear whether he required medical attention following the incident.
Footage of the incident began circulating on X around midnight Sunday morning. A live streamer was able to capture the entire situation on video.
Portland, Ore. — Antifa militant accidentally lights himself on fire while torching an American flag outside the ICE facility. pic.twitter.com/rJs6VVuvPv
— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) March 8, 2026
As of Sunday morning, no further information about the man was publicly available. The Post Millennial’s Katie Daviscourt claimed that the man was a member of Antifa, the left-wing activist group. However, that information had not been confirmed as of publication.
President Donald Trump previously designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in September 2025. He had threatened to do so during his first term in 2020, though that never came to be before he lost to Joe Biden in that year’s election.
“Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity, then employs elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives, conceal its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement, and recruit additional members,” Trump said at the time.
Social media users reacted with widespread outrage, with many calling for the man to be arrested. Trump signed an executive order last August stating that burning the American flag should be a felony. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that flag burning is protected by the First Amendment.
🚨 TRUMP: “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION…” pic.twitter.com/M7aIc27DM6
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 18, 2025
The incident comes amid continued heated (pun not intended) tension between U.S. citizens and ICE. There have been continued anti-ICE and anti-government protests nationwide for several months, especially after Operation Metro Surge began in Minnesota at the beginning of December 2025.
Protests have included student-led walkouts at schools across the country. However, some of those protests have turned violent in recent weeks. Five high school students in Quakertown, Pa., received felony aggravated assault charges and are on house arrest after a Feb. 20 walkout. Viral footage captured the police chief, who was not in uniform, placing a young woman in a chokehold; he is currently on workers’ compensation leave after reportedly suffering facial and rib injuries during the protest.
The Issaquah Police Department in Issaquah, Wash., recently filed charges against four unnamed individuals who allegedly assaulted a woman at a February anti-ICE protest outside the local high school. More recently, a New York City man was violently assaulted after ripping down a picture of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a Manhattan vigil this past Friday.
