Donald Trump has been spreading rumors for days about migrants from Haiti in a small town in the USA. Now he’s upping the ante.
Tucson – For Donald Trump the matter is clear: immigrants from Haiti love to slaughter and eat the pets of people in the US state of Ohio. In the TV duel against Kamala Harris he really got going for the first time and pilloried the migrants: “In Springfield they eat the dogs, they eat the cats, they eat the pets of the people who live there.”
It was a shocking moment. Kamala Harris could only shake her head. Moderator David Muir immediately contradicted him and made it clear that the story was not true. Trump did not care. “Well, I saw it on TV,” the candidate replied. republican at the US election 2024The conspiracy narrative is already having its first consequences: On Thursday (September 12), a town hall and an elementary school in the small town of Springfield had to be closed due to a bomb threat.
Trump repeats story of migrants eating pets ahead of US election
But anyone who thought Trump would let the story rest was quickly proven wrong. At a rally in Arizona, he even stepped up his scaremongering. Haitian migrants, he told the crowd, had “invaded” Springfield and were “destroying their way of life.”
And then he turned back to the animals. This time, however, it was not about dogs or cats. Instead, he claimed that the migrants from Haiti were also targeting geese in the region’s parks. “They’re taking the geese,” Trump said. “You know where the geese are? In the park. In the lake. And they even run away with their pets. These people are the worst.”
Trump’s claim about pet-eating migrants has no basis
For days, Trump has ignored the authorities’ statements, which said that such allegations had no basis. The conspiracy theory first emerged from a media report about a woman who allegedly killed and ate a house cat. 27-year-old Allexis F., who was arrested in Canton at the end of August, is from Ohio, not Haiti.
Then the action shifted to Springfield, which is about 280 kilometers from Canton. “My neighbor told me that her daughter’s friend had lost her cat,” it was said, according to NewsGuard in a Facebook post that has since been deleted. “One day she came home from work, got out of her car and looked at a neighbor’s house where Haitians live. There she saw her cat hanging from a tree branch like one would do with a deer for slaughter, and they were cutting it up for food.”
1801 |
Rob Rue |
58,106 (2022) |
10,000 to 15,000 in recent years |
Erika Lee’s entry is a fourth-hand report. She was “shocked” when Trump spoke about a post from a private Facebook group during the TV debate, Lee told NewsGuard. “That blew my mind.” The neighbor she mentioned, Kimberley Newton, was also surprised: “I’m not sure I’m the most credible source because I don’t even know the person who lost the cat. I have no proof.”
Things are getting exciting in the US election campaign
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Trump stirs up sentiment ahead of US election with tale about pet-eating migrants
Before Trump, his running mate JD Vance had already circulated the allegation that illegal immigrants from Haiti were stealing and eating pets in Springfield. In the meantime, numerous Republicans are posting AI-generated images of pets online – usually with calls for their rescue. Trump also posted such posts on Truth Social, including a picture of kittens holding a sign that read: “Don’t let them eat us. Vote for Trump!” (cs)
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