Donald Trump is getting so desperate his campaign is spreading racist lies about cats

Major Republicans yesterday – suddenly and in unison – let loose their moral outrage on a fake story: Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing their neighbors’ pets and eating them. Local authorities have already said that there aren’t even any reports of this happening, but that didn’t stop Republicans from breathlessly spreading the racist and xenophobic rumor.

No less than the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), wrote about it on social media as if it were already a proven fact that this is what Haitians do, rather than an absurd lie: “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?”

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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? pic.twitter.com/rf0EDIeI5i

— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024

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He was far from the first to jump on the “Black immigrants are killing your beloved pets” bandwagon. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) brought it up in a House hearing. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) shared a meme of kittens begging people to vote for Donald Trump so that they don’t get eaten. The Trump-Vance campaign sent out an email blast yesterday saying that “it’s all coming to your city if Kamala Harris is elected” and promising that Trump would start “the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.”

Underlining the racist nature of the lie, one AI-generated animation being shared on rightwing social media shows Trump holding cats while running from a group of Black men.

Save Private Feline 2024 pic.twitter.com/dGOsNrjqaG

— X Citizen Journal (@xcitizenjournal) September 9, 2024

The lie here is patently absurd and completely unfounded, but it’s also the only thing that the GOP has at the moment, less than two months away from an election where they planned to talk about how President Joe Biden is old but can’t anymore. Their actual policy proposals – embodied in Project 2025 – are so unpopular that it’s considered a PR disaster for voters to find out what they are.

Two other absurd lies from the past few months stand out in the same way. One is Trump’s insistence – despite his campaign acknowledging that it’s a lie! – that schools are performing gender-affirming surgery on students without their parents’ knowledge. Instead of just saying that he opposes schools using students’ pronouns and first names without seeking parental permission — which is an actual policy debate occurring in school districts and state legislatures across the country — the Trump-Vance campaign apparently decided that the reality of their position in this policy debate isn’t enough to win an election, so they had to make up an even bigger problem to oppose.

Also consider Trump’s and other Republicans’ repeated claim that Democrats support abortions even after a baby is born, which doesn’t make sense since abortion is, by definition, the termination of a pregnancy, and once a baby is born, there is no more pregnancy. So what Trump is talking about is infanticide and there’s no proof that this is happening anywhere. His hope is that undecided and marginal voters – who famously don’t pay much attention to politics – will be swayed to vote for Trump.

Just like with the “schools are operating on students” lie, the “liberals are murdering already-born babies” lie shows the weakness of the Republican position on a policy matter. They apparently don’t believe that their desire to restrict all abortions, as outlined in Project 2025, is popular enough of a policy goal to run on, so instead they just made up something that isn’t happening to campaign against instead.

In the same vein, Republicans don’t appear to believe that Americans are xenophobic enough to elect Trump this November to stop legal immigration, so they invented a threat to house cats out of whole cloth.

Could this work as a strategy? Just making up comically preposterous problems and blaming them on one’s opponent? It’s hard to tell. Many voters will hear some of these lies without hearing the news stories debunking them. People who don’t follow current events that closely might not have the context necessary to immediately recognize the idea that public schools – that often can’t even pay for classroom supplies – are secretly performing surgery on students.

But it does reek of desperation. Towards the end of last week, after Trump’s bizarre and incoherent response to a question about childcare costs, more people were noticing his declining mental state. The Monday immediately after, we are hearing about immigrants eating cats. It’s probably not a coincidence.

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