Trump's Cats and Dogs Conspiracy Is a Fantasy World With Real Consequences

The moment Donald Trump uttered those words during the debate Tuesday night, I knew I was heading to Springfield.

And so here I am with a message from a once-unremarkable small American town that is now, if its claims are to be believed, quite remarkable.

“They eat dogs! They eat cats!” They eat the pets of the people who live there“, Trump had said.

First stop – the park to meet the dog walkers. The first man I met, with his dog, was named Bruce.

“I’ve heard about it…” he replied when I asked if he could verify Trump’s statements. “…but I haven’t seen anything concrete.”

“Aren’t you worried about your dog?” I asked him. “No.”

“You should ask them…” he said, pointing to a man in a municipal vehicle.

He didn’t want to be filmed but was happy to chat with us. He explained that the numbers of ducks and geese had declined. Maybe they were being eaten, he said, or maybe they were just migrating elsewhere.

“What about pets?” I asked. And that’s when I got my first clue about how conspiracies are hatched.

“I’ve never seen anything happen with dogs and cats except what I saw on TikTok with the Springfield police arresting a lady for eating a cat. She was from Haiti, right,” he said.

The video he saw has been circulating for a week on the conspiracy incubator that is social media.

This is police body camera footage of a woman arrested weeks ago for allegedly killing and eating a cat.

But she is not a Haitian migrant. She was born in the United States. And the incident did not happen in Springfield either. Local police confirmed that all of these facts were true.

In Springfield, we did not meet anyone who had seen immigrants eating pets.

Walking the streets and talking to locals, I can confirm that dogs seem safe; cats roam free.

Perhaps instinct is to laugh at these Trump-era absurdities. Indeed, Haitians in Springfield also know how to see the funny side of things.

Analysis:
How Trump’s Claims That Immigrants Eat Pets Began and Spread Online

“Haitians don’t eat cats and dogs. No. It’s not in the culture to eat that,” Viteo Lawway, 24, told me with a laugh.

But this cat and dog story also hides some truths. Immigration problems are enormous in the United States and they are particularly serious in Springfield.

Viteo Lawway is one of 15,000 people who have arrived here in Springfield since 2020 from Haiti, a war-torn, gang-run country. The strains on services and society are evident.

Springfield is a small town with a current population of less than 60,000.

“How did you feel when you heard Donald Trump’s words?” I asked Casey Rollins, the executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Center, which helps newly arrived migrants.

“I was physically ill. I still am. I can’t even react. I can’t even say it again. It’s just incomprehensible to me, but that’s what happens when hysteria spreads, you know, and all kinds of fictional narratives and it really hurts our world.”

Learn more:
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Where did Donald Trump’s allegations of eating pets come from?

We took a look at another view from another Springfield resident that went viral online.

In the video, the woman, who appears to be addressing a community group, is heard saying: “I feel like we’ve been invaded by some kind of parasite.

“I’m angry because my friends and family are packing up and moving. I’m angry because foreigners are using the resources that have been made available to Americans who live here.”

The clip then alleged and amplified the story of the pet-eating migrant.

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“Every community, every culture has its myth and folklore. I guess this is one of them,” Casey told me.

Tensions in the city are clear but they are being stoked.

Last year, a car and school bus accident in Springfield was caused by a Haitian driver. There are concerns that newly arrived Haitians may not drive well.

An 11-year-old boy died in the crash. Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has spoken about the tragedy but framed it in a peculiar way. The boy, Vance said on X last week, was “murdered by migrants.”

A Trump campaign social media page also opined: “REMEMBER: Aiden Clark, 11, was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.”

The boy’s father fought back.

Nathan Clark said at a city commission meeting this week that he wished “the relentless group of people who are spreading hate would leave us alone.”

He continued: “My son Aiden Clark was not murderedHe was accidentally killed by a migrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt throughout this community, throughout the state and even throughout the nation. But don’t turn this into hate.

Racist conspiracies, without foundation or evidence, usually remain at the bottom of the rabbit holes where they belong.

But Donald Trump lives in these rabbit holes. He is drawn into them by people in his inner circle, such as Laura Loomer, a well-known conspiracy theorist who regularly travels among Mr. Trump’s inner circle.

Rumors that usually exist only in small echo chambers precisely because there is no evidence to support them suddenly become massively amplified when Donald Trump mentions them.

This is a country where too often people no longer trust their neighbors, their instincts or their own perspective. And that goes for both sides in this divided country. That is the problem.

It’s a Black Mirror kind of thing: a conspiracy about cats and dogs.

A fantasy world with real consequences.