Trump campaign and JD Vance promote false rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets
Several prominent Republicans, including the party’s vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, promoted false claims on Monday that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and eating family pets.
It’s the latest turn in a campaign that has increasingly embraced race-baiting messaging, questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity while seeking to undermine her immigration policies.
The rumors center on the Ohio city of Springfield, which has experienced a surge in recent migration from Haitians seeking to escape a Caribbean country that has been rocked from years of natural disasters, political assassinations and gang rule.
A post in a Springfield Facebook group recently claimed a neighbor’s daughter’s friend found their missing cat hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home, and it was being prepped to be eaten,
according to the Springfield News-Sun. Those rumors were picked up by conservative media and then spread on X, where they gained widespread traction on Monday.
“President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets,” a Trump campaign account
posted to X. “Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz
posted a meme showing two kittens embracing. Text overlaid on the image reads: “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
Vance
posted a video of himself discussing migration to Ohio at a recent hearing. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” Some accounts shared AI-generated pictures of Trump holding a cat in his hands while being chased by crowds of Black men.
The unsubstantiated claims appear to be the result of an unwieldy game of telephone that began as a rumor in a local Facebook group before spiraling to reach the highest echelons of conservative media and the Republican Party. They spread widely on X, whose owner, Elon Musk, has embraced the false rumors and posted several memes that promoted them.
Several prominent Republicans, including the party’s vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, promoted false claims on Monday that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and eating family pets.
news.yahoo.com