Ever since former President Donald Trump used his platform before an audience of nearly 70 million people to spread false tales about immigrants eating cats and dogs, life in Springfield, Ohio, hasn’t been the same.
There have not been any credible tales of Haitian immigrants in the Midwestern city killing and consuming pets.
But hospitals and schools in the area have been disrupted by bomb threats and other scares generated by people alarmed by Trump’s fantasy stories. The city itself seems to be living under near siege conditions.
All because the former and perhaps future president of the United States decided to tell a few lies in an attempt to rally his troops.
He did this even though Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Springfield Mayor Rob Rue—both Republicans—said it wasn’t true. Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, continued to fib about this, stirring up unstable people in the process, even after the city manager told a Vance staffer there was no truth to the rumors—and the Springfield woman whose complaint about her missing pet started the racist folk tale recanted her story.
She said the cat had returned home.
And she apologized to her Haitian neighbors for maligning them unjustly and unfairly.
She’s apparently a Trump supporter, but she seems to have a greater understanding of personal responsibility than her leader does.
Also, a greater devotion to telling the truth.
At this point, it isn’t a surprise that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance treat the truth as if it were toilet paper. They both are men whose ambition extends all the way to amorality. They seem not to care who they hurt as long as they get what they want.
But their actions are particularly disturbing at this time and in this context.
A few days after Trump trumpeted the “they’re-eating-our-pets” lie during the presidential debate, a man allegedly attempted to assassinate the former president at a golf course in Florida. The man was arrested in a hurry and no one, fortunately, was injured in the incident.
This was the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months.
Both times Trump blamed Democrats—particularly President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris—for the assassination attempts. Trump said they had stirred up ugly emotions by telling people that he planned to be a dictator and would not respect the U.S. Constitution if elected again.
In fact, what Biden and Harris—as well as others—have done is quote Trump’s own words. The former president has said he plans to be a dictator on day one of a second Trump presidency and has called for suspending the Constitution.
In other words, they’ve told the truth about what he’s said.
It’s possible that has provoked some unstable people, but the fact is that both of the accused assassins had registered as Republicans and thus weren’t likely to be looking for guidance from Democratic politicians on anything.
Not that this matters to Trump, who clings to grievances—just or not, real or not—the way connoisseurs savor fine wines.
In both assassination attempts, Trump’s life was saved by the actions of his U.S. Secret Service detail. The threats to the former president’s life have prompted many of his political rivals, including Biden and Harris, to demand that the size of Trump’s protection detail be increased.
So, going forward, Trump will be safer.
The schoolchildren and hospital patients in Springfield do not have Secret Service protection. In fact, the police and fire departments in that beleaguered city have been stretched to the breaking point while coping with the former president’s prevarications.
Trump and Vance now want to campaign in Springfield, presumably to tell still more lies about the city, its cats, its dogs and some good Haitian people who just moved there in pursuit of what we used to call the American Dream.
Ohio’s governor and Springfield’s mayor—again, they’re both Republicans—have asked them not to come, saying such a visit could break the back of the city’s services.
Thus far, Trump and Vance seem inclined not to listen.
The Republican candidates for president and vice president say they care about the welfare of the good people of Springfield, Ohio.
There’s little evidence to suggest that’s true.
Or that they even know what the truth is.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Send comments to [email protected].
