Trump and Vance Fan Flames of Hatred in Springfield, Ohio

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan Chaos and threats have consumed the small, midwestern city of Springfield, Ohio, and its growing population of legal Haitian immigrants, thanks to venomous, racist lies spouted by Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump outrageously lied on the debate stage on September 10. Trump’s allegation came directly from Vance, who tweeted the day before, on the morning of September 9: “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. 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?” Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told the Wall Street Journal that he received a call from a Vance campaign staffer that same morning, asking for evidence of pet-eating immigrants. Heck said, “I told them these claims were baseless.” Rather than delete his racist, xenophobic post, Vance dug in over the next week, heaping tweet upon tweet, statement upon statement, reinforcing the lies and vilifying Springfield’s Haitian immigrant population. Vance’s claims, which Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine referred to as “garbage,” fueled Trump’s racist rhetoric, whose principal campaign strategy has been to demonize immigrants, saying this week, “We’re going have the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we’re going to start with Springfield…” At a rally in Long Island, New York, Trump unleashed a torrent of lies about Springfield’s Haitians, saying, “They came in illegally. They’re destroying our country. We’re getting them out.” Springfield, Ohio was once wealthy, home to industrial giants like International Harvester and the publishing powerhouse that put out Collier’s Magazine, credited with creating “muckraking” investigative journalism. Its population dropped from 82,000 in 1970 to 58,662 in 2020. “The city of Springfield was in a decline,” Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “Haitian people came there, they revitalized the economy, they pay their taxes, and they are really supporting a vibrant community in Springfield.” Jamie McGregor, CEO of McGregor Metal, told PBS, when asked about his 30 Haitian immigrant employees, “I wish I had 30 more. Our Haitian associates come to work every day. They don’t have a drug problem. They’ll stay at their machine. They’ll achieve their numbers. They are here to work. And so in general, that’s a stark difference from what we’re used to in our community.” Since Trump and Vance launched their campaign against Springfield’s Haitian residents, the city has experienced a wave of bomb threats, temporarily putting two hospitals on lockdown, forcing the evacuation of Springfield City Hall and elementary schools, and compelling two colleges, Wittenberg University and Clark State College, to move classes online. There have been threats to shoot up the town, and, last Saturday, the neo-fascist Proud Boys marched through downtown. Governor DeWine has deployed Ohio State Troopers to guard the city. At the Long Island rally where Trump pledged to visit Springfield at some point in the next two weeks, he suggested he might not make it out of the city alive: “You may never see me again, but that’s OK. Got to do what I got to do. ‘Whatever happened to Trump?’ ‘Well, he never got out of Springfield.’” Just about everything Trump and Vance have said about Springfield has been a lie, including about the death of eleven-year-old Aiden Clark. Aiden died when a Haitian immigrant swerved into a school bus, in 2023. Vance claimed the boy was “murdered.” On September 10, Aiden’s parents stood before the Springfield City Council. Nathan Clark, his father, spoke: “I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man. I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt. But if that guy killed my eleven-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone. The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces … using Aiden as a political tool, is to say the least reprehensible for any political purpose. … JD Vance and Donald Trump, they have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. … They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio.” Nathan Clark ended by saying “Please stop the hate.” Let this plea of a grieving father be Springfield’s message to the world.