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Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
Donald Trump is said to be planning a trip to Springfield, Ohio, after a week of peddling a conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs in the city. Almost 35 years afterThe Simpsons thrust the city’s name into the spotlight, Springfield is back hitting headlines thanks to a wild (and baseless) Trump rumor.
Now, the former president is planning a visit to Springfield “soon,” a source familiar with Trump’s schedule told NBC News. It is not clear precisely when Trump will visit the city, although close ally Vivek Ramaswamy announced on X that he will be visiting the city for a town hall event on Thursday. The Independent has contacted Trump’s spokesperson for more information.
The former president announced to 67 million ABC viewers watching the presidential debate against his Democratic rival Kamala Harris that Haitian migrants have flocked to the city and are eating local pets and plucking waterfowl from parks and ponds to devour.
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said last Tuesday, leaving Harris aghast.
Local authorities had already debunked the lies even by the time Trump pushed the fictional narrative on the debate stage, with Springfield police saying there is no credible evidence to support the allegations, which were made last Monday evening. It came after Trump’s running mate JD Vance pushed the story as a vehicle for his xenophobic, anti-immigration narrative, and to attack Harris and the Biden administration’s border policy.
“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote on X last Monday. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
By Tuesday, the Ohio Senator himself admitted that it was possible “all of these rumors will turn out to be false.” Despite there being no evidence to support his claims, Trump continued to attack Haitian migrants and dragged another animal into his bizarre conspiracy: geese.
“A recording of 911 calls show that residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town’s geese,” Trump told a crowd at a Tuscon, Arizona, rally on Thursday.
In the wake of the former president perpetuating the lies, a bomb threat was made in Springfield on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of city hall and two schools. The threat explicitly “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community,” officials said.
On Sunday, JD Vance told NBC News that he denied the rumors were a figment of his imagination, adding that “my constituents are saying these things are happening”. He later told CNN that he has to “create stories” in order to get the media to “pay attention to the suffering of the American people”.
The rumors stemmed from a bizarre anecdote posted by Springfield local Erika Lee on a local Facebook group, where she alleged that a cat owner found her dead pet hanging from a tree ready to be skinned, butchered and eaten in a house said to be occupied by Haitian immigrants.
Lee has since told NewsGuard that she heard the tale fourth-hand and that it came from a neighbor’s friend’s daughter – whom she has never met.
