Michael Keehan
Staff Writer
If you’ve seen or heard about the debate, you’ve probably heard former president Donald Trump’s claim about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio eating cats and geese. Obviously, it’s false, and a single search can debunk this multiple times. But to Springfield’s residents, it’s unsurprising this big lie appeared, and even less it’s about them. Springfield’s welcomed Haitians for a little under a decade, but strain on public resources and increasing nationalism has caused white nationalist uproar, both against Haitians and native black people.
Various conspiracy theories regarding the Haitians were first brought to the mainstream days before the debate. Trump’s running mate purported these claims, including lying about a Haitian migrant murdering an 11-year-old boy, when it was really a bus accident. They spread across X from multiple right-wing accounts and Trump at the debate. Despite being proven false almost immediately, he and his base still lie. Now, the aftermath rears its ugly head.
Bomb threats lurk across Springfield. Haitians report their property attacked. Proud Boys marched the streets and even KKK flyers were spotted. But with the danger posed, the Trump campaign has refused to back down. Regardless of your stance on immigration or politics in general, it’s hard to see this as anything but an evil rivaled only by the Nazis.
Calling people you disagree with Nazis is often an exaggeration, and I far from believe all Trump supporters are Nazis. However, the Trump campaign’s recent rhetoric, like the recent demonization of Haitians, echoes past uses of racism to push political means. Eating pets? Said about the Chinese to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Spreading diseases? Used by German doctors to spread Nazi propaganda. And the lead-up to the Holocaust wasn’t instantaneous. It was a gradual process of dehumanizing various groups and encouraging violence through indirect means such as stochastic terrorism. That term often describes right-wing accounts like LibsofTikTok, who attacked the queer community similar to how Hatians are now.
Comparing the rhetoric of Trump and Hitler, there are clear and alarming similarities, but I don’t think Trump’s a racist, nor that he wants concentration camps. He only wants to deport immigrants, regardless of legal status, in a violent way ala 1954’s Operation Wetback. But the fascist-adjacent rhetoric has other benefits, ones I think Trump cares about more. It brings blind loyalty and provides scapegoats, but only if people accept it. Whether you like him or not, you should call him and his allies out on this rhetoric, or else the rhetoric will only get stronger and more dangerous. As Martin Niemôller once said, “Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak for me.”