Trump’s lies about Haitians immigrants are both bigoted and dangerous—exactly as he planned.
Trump’s lies about Haitians immigrants are both bigoted and dangerous—exactly as he planned.
Trump won't stop even if people are killed
Donald Trump doesn’t care that his lie accusing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio of eating people’s pets is causing a spike in anti-immigrant hate incidents in the area or was the reason for a bomb threats Thursday morning targeting the local government and local schools on Friday.
It also doesn’t matter if you fact check Trump on this BS claim. This is not about the truth.
Nobody—I mean nobody—understands what animates, radicalizes and incites his base to vote, make threats and commit violence more than Trump. That is why he is targeting both Black people and immigrants with his lies. This is racism for a purpose. He gets that with one lie, he is targeting two communities that MAGA hates: Blacks and immigrants.
As we all recall, Trump--as President--slammed the idea of accepting more immigrants from Haiti and Africa calling them “shithole countries.” Instead, Trump stated he wanted more people coming in from places like Norway aka white people. Trump’s base loved that.
That is why during the debate Tuesday, Trump repeatedly fear-mongered about non-white people coming over the border, declaring, “What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country.” He then added the now infamous line, “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs…they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.”
ABC News co-moderator David Muir instantly fact checked Trump saying “ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports” of any animals being treated that way by immigrants. But Trump remained defiant, saying, “But the people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.” When Muir factchecked Trump again, he then offered this ominous line, “We'll find out.”
Trump’s lie at the debate about Haitian immigrants was something his base has been worked up about for days—as Trump knows. The first prominent right winger to amplify the lie was Trump’s close ally Charlie Kirk—who has a history of making racist comments about Blacks--posting just days before the debate on Twitter that “residents of Springfield, OH are reporting that Haitians are eating their family pets.” His post was viewed more than 4 million times.
Trump’s son, Donald Jr. then amplified the lie on social media that Black migrants were kidnapping and eating people’s cats and dogs. Next Elon Musk -the owner of Twitter and vocal Trump backer--did the same.
That got the attention of the Trump campaign. If the MAGA base believes/loves the claim Black immigrants are such savages that they are eating people’s pets, they were going to join. That is why on Monday, Trump’s running mate JD Vance claimed in his post viewed more than 10 million times that “reports now show people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” A short time later on Monday, as the NY Times reported, the Trump campaign did a massive email blast to their supporters quoting the lie about the Black immigrants.
None of this is about the truth. It’s Trump understanding what excites his base and increases their engagement. And as Trump knows, that “engagement” is not simply going to be heading to the polls. It will also be hate, threats and even violence.
In reality, Springfield residents have overall been welcoming to the Haitian immigrants to their community over the past four years. Jamie McGregor the head of McGregor Metal, a family-owned business in Springfield, told The New York Times how it was lacking workers after it had invested to increase production before "the Haitians were there to fill those positions." Joe Ruck, a co-owner of Champion City Cuts Barber Shop, told USA Today that Haitian immigrants are working the jobs no one else wanted.
But Trump’s lies have embolden the haters in Springfield. As Newsweek documented, there has now been a surge in vile comments directed online and in person against Springfield’s Haitian community. A 19-year-old, who graduated from Springfield High School and now works at an Amazon warehouse said he has been called a "dirty Haitian" and an "illegal."
Rose-Thamar Joseph--the Operations Manager for the Springfield’s Haitian Support Center-- told a local Ohio paper on Wednesday that concerns in the Haitian community are growing. “They have fear, a lot of fears right now. Some of them are talking about leaving Springfield. Some of them are scared for their lives. It’s tough for us,” Joseph explained.
The Haitian Times reported that Haitians in the area “are feeling more afraid as each day passes,” noting “kids aren’t even going to school because of fear of being attacked.” Some told the paper of “instances of bullying, intimidation that the city is not addressing”-- which have skyrocketed since the false postings.
And then on Thursday morning, the first crime connected to Trump’s lie occurred. That is when a bomb threat was called in prompting the Springfield City Hall as well as multiple other city facilities to evacuate. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told the media that the threat “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.”
Despite many officials warning that Trump’s lie will lead to violence against the Haitian community or Blacks in general, he refuses to stop. On Thursday night in the midst of this backlash and after the bomb threats, Trump again repeated the lie to his supporters at a rally in Arizona, telling them “20,000 illegal Haitian immigrants have descended on a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life.” (The Haitians in Springfield are in the US legally.) The convicted felon added the lie that these migrants are “walking off with their pets.”
And earlier on Thursday, Trump posted five digitally doctored photos on social media of himself saving pets from migrants—including the racist image at the top of this article where Trump is saving a white cat from angry Black people.
Trump knows his base loves this. It’s also why Trump won’t stop talking about 11 year-old Aiden Clark who was accidentally killed in a 2023 in the Springfield, Ohio area when a Haitian immigrant driving a car hit Clark’s school bus. Trump uses that story as a way to further gin up hate of Black immigrants. Earlier this week, Aiden’s father, Nathan offered an emotional plea at the Springfield City hall meeting directed specifically to the “morally bankrupt” Trump, Vance and other Republicans who keep invoking his son’s name. Mr. Clark declared, “Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible.” He added, “they have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now.”
But we know Trump won’t stop. He is desperate. He gets this type of racism excites his MAGA base—as well as grabs media attention away from VP Harris. And between now and Nov. 5 we can expect Trump to get even more despicable, more desperate and more dangerous.
That man is pure evil.
This bullshit may end up costing Trump Florida and ending the leadership hopes of Rick Scott. There are thousands of Haitian Americans in Florida, and they will be pissed.