Donald Trump’s try to attack Vice President Kamala Harris with a widely debunked falsehood about Haitian migrants backfired for the Republican candidate and have become one among the defining moments of her first – and possibly only – debate.
In the midst of their meeting in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Trump attacked Harris over her U.S. border policy, claiming that migrants within the Ohio city of Springfield were “eating the pets of the people who live there.” ABC News anchor David Muir quickly interjected that the network had contacted the town manager, who said there have been no credible reports of immigrants’ pets being harmed.
Trump’s claim echoed apocryphal stories circulating around the globe on X and other social media sites that claimed Haitian migrants in Springfield were behind a wave of local crime and the disappearance of cats and dogs. Supporters of the previous president – including X owner Elon Musk, who has nearly 200 million followers on the platform – circulated and posted those claims in the times leading as much as the controversy.
The incident highlighted the riskiness of political candidates, including Trump and his right-wing allies, in spreading conspiracy theories that do not survive the sunshine of day outside of social media. It quickly became a goal of mockery of Trump and an emblem of every thing that went improper for the previous president during his debate with Harris. On Wednesday morning he signaled that there is probably not a rematch.
Trump has tried to make immigration a priority in his campaign against Harris and returned to it often in the course of the debate. But repeating falsehoods about Haitian immigrants in Ohio won’t help the previous president, said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and veteran of Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“At best, it’s a distraction,” Conant said. “At worst, it reminds people of all the insanity that comes with Trump.”
The situation in Springfield has “so far been largely ignored by the liberal mainstream media,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “President Trump will continue to give a voice to Americans who express concern about the influx of illegal immigrants and rising migrant crime in their communities.”
Celebrities often seize on topical issues to search out an audience or appeal to their existing followers, say experts who study disinformation. The ultimate goal is commonly to amplify their rhetoric fairly than promote arguments based on truth, they are saying.
“Often we see influencers exploit conspiracy theories and falsehoods to manipulate or influence public discourse or opinion, even if they don’t believe them because the narratives themselves are absurd,” said Lisa Kaplan, founder and CEO of Alethea, a counter-disinformation firm. “This is usually done for political, personal or financial reasons – and to generate more engagement online.”
Trump’s comments actually spoke to the audience he was trying to achieve: fans on X, who responded through the use of artificial intelligence to generate memes showing cats, dogs and geese imploring voters to avoid wasting them by voting for Trump. Some of those concepts were used to mock Trump, because he believes in something so extreme.
The conversation is an element of a trend on the network fuelled by its owner Musk that’s fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment. Musk, who supports Trump for president, has previously come under fire for supporting false content that led to violence against immigrants within the UK.
“The campaign appears to hope that spreading such claims, regardless of their accuracy, will stoke public hostility toward migrants,” said Jared Holt, senior research analyst on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “Hatred against migrants and minorities has left a bloody trail of tragedy in the United States, and politicians who encourage these hostilities create risks for the people they target.”
Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and rebranded it as “X,” he has taken an “anything goes” approach to the platform’s content. Among other things, he has drastically reduced the variety of staff moderating content and even incited conspiracies himself.
Rumors about Haitian migrants in Springfield were also amplified on X by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, in posts Monday and Tuesday before the controversy that garnered tens of millions of views.
About 15,000 Haitians have come to Springfield legally and with temporary protection status in recent times to flee poverty and violence of their home country. Their arrival has overwhelmed the health system and public services of the town of 58,000 residents, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on Tuesday.
DeWine called on the federal government to supply more support to communities affected by such crises, but warned against blaming Haitian immigrants.
“The Haitians here are hard-working people,” DeWine said during a news conference in Columbus before the controversy. “They came to Springfield, Ohio, to work, and many, many, many of them are working and filling jobs in Springfield.”
(Updated with Trump campaign comment in seventh paragraph)
