FUEL, MEET FIRE

Trump Digs Heels in on Deranged Claims That Haitian Migrants Are Eating Pets

The claims, which are entirely and demonstrably false, were spouted by the former president in front of an audience of millions last month.

Donald Trump doubled down on a baseless conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants he’s latched onto in recent weeks during a Univision Noticias town hall in Doral, Florida on Wednesday, telling Latino voters that he was just parroting what he’d seen on the news. At last month’s presidential debate, Trump aired a false, viral claim that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio had been documented stealing and eating family pets. (Ohio authorities on both the local and state level have repeatedly rebuffed the claims, for which there is no credible evidence.) At the town hall, an undecided voter who identified himself as a registered Republican from Arizona asked Trump whether he really believed in the things about Haitian migrants he’d been saying. “I was just saying what was reported. All I do is report,” Trump replied. “I was there, I’m going to be there and we’re going to take a look.” Despite threats to do so, the former president has not traveled to Springfield this election cycle. City officials have politely asked him to stay away. On Wednesday, he repeated he was “going to take a look” into the nonexistent situation, “and I will give you a full report when I do.” If elected, Trump has vowed to revoke the immigration status of Haitian migrants living legally in the U.S.