Even Fox News Tries to Shut Down Lara Trump on Pet-Eating Conspiracy

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair and daughter-in-law of Donald Trump, defended the Trump campaign’s lies about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Given that the rumors amplified last week by the Trump-Vance campaign have been repeatedly discredited by Springfield police and local government officials, Fox News’s Howard Kurtz asked, “Do you now accept, based on what local officials say, that this is untrue?”

“It’s not up to me to decide that,” Lara Trump replied. “This information came directly from the people of Springfield. No one at our campaign—Donald Trump didn’t make this up himself. You heard from people at a city council meeting, I believe, that they were very concerned about what’s going on,” she continued, referring back to rumors roundly debunked by those on the ground in Springfield.

“I think it’s a shame that people are trying to discredit the impact that the illegal immigration in this country has had on towns like Springfield, Ohio,” she added—a sentiment that runs against remarks made by Ohio’s Trump-supporting Republican Governor, Mike DeWine, that same day. DeWine called the smears against the Haitian Springfield residents “garbage,” adding, “They’re here legally, and they want to work, and they are, in fact, working.”

Lara Trump was not the only member of Team Trump asked to answer for the campaign’s lies this weekend. J.D. Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

The demonization of the Haitian residents in Springfield has given rise to threats against government offices, public schools, and hospitals.

Donald Trump’s angry post attacking Taylor Swift is drawing backlash from his own supporters.

On Sunday, in an all-caps post, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” And the convicted felon’s MAGA faithful were immediately concerned.

Even on Truth Social, a platform almost exclusively made up of Trump fans, the comments were negative, with supporters posting, “Why are you doing this” and “This one isn’t going to help much.” Some of them speculated that his account was hacked, and others advised him not to take on the pop star’s numerous and vocal fanbase.

Only three months ago, Trump made some creepy comments praising Swift, saying, “I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually—unusually beautiful.”

Last week, he had a somewhat more muted, although weird, response after the pop star endorsed Harris after Tuesday’s presidential debate, telling Fox News the next morning that he preferred Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, alluding to Swift’s partner, Travis Kelce. (Brittany Mahomes has been perceived to be pro-Trump, while her husband has said he wasn’t endorsing any presidential candidate.)

“She seems to always endorse a Democrat, and she’ll probably pay a price for it at the, uh, in the marketplace,” Trump said of Swift at the time. Does Trump think his post Sunday will hurt her and maybe even draw away her Republican fans? If so, he’d be deluded, and it might even backfire on him. The A.I. images his fans created to make him friendly to Swift fans didn’t work, with Trump even seeing a need to distance himself from them.

Swift’s popularity has driven the right wing mad, with many of them unable to comprehend her popularity. Trump’s post isn’t likely to help him or his campaign, and Swift will let the haters hate, hate, hate and shake it off.

J.D. Vance seemingly admitted that he and Donald Trump have been spreading racist lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

During an interview Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash, Vance flailed as he attempted to downplay his ticket’s role in spreading completely discredited rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs. With Vance and Trump’s help, the cartoonishly racist lies made their way to the national stage, fueling right-wing hysterics and resulting in multiple bomb threats in the city of Springfield.

“Why have I talked about some of the things that I’ve been talking about?” Vance said. “My constituents have brought approximately a dozen separate concerns to me; 10 of them are verifiable and confirmable. And a couple of them I talk about because my constituents are telling me, firsthand, that they are seeing these things.”

Vance seemed to want to push the blame away from himself and onto his favorite punching bag: the media.

“Many of the things that the media says that are completely baseless have since been confirmed,” Vance continued. “For example, I was told, Dana, by the American media, that it was baseless that migrants were capturing the geese from the local park pond and eating them.”

Vance claimed that there were “911 calls” from well before he had chosen to elevate the claims to national scrutiny that proved these things had taken place.

“So my attitude is, ‘Listen to my constituents.’ Sometimes they’re going to say things that people don’t like. But they’re saying things that people don’t like because their town has been overwhelmed,” Vance said, claiming he was “protecting” them by elevating these claims without ever actually confirming that they were true. An important difference between the media and Vance, however, is that news outlets actually bother to confirm their stories.

“Senator, I have to go through several things you just said,” Bash replied.

“First of all, the Clark County Sheriff and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reviewed 11 months of 911 calls; they only identified two instances of people alleging Haitians were taking geese out of parks. They found zero evidence to substantiate those claims,” Bash explained.

Bash said the rest of his “alleged evidence” was “unsourced social media videos from a different city. Apparently no connection to Haitians.” She also noted that people had been paid to drum up so-called “proof.”

“Nobody is disputing that the town of Springfield, Ohio, needs help. But, you’re not just a bystander,” Bash said. “You’re the senator from Ohio, so instead of saying things that are wrong, and actually causing the hospitals, the schools, the government buildings to be evacuated because of bomb threats, because of the cats and dogs thing, why not actually be constructive, in helping to better integrate them into the community? Because there are a lot of employers there who say that the Haitians workers are helping fill jobs that they need desperately filled.”

Rather than take any ownership of his role in spreading false claims and incendiary rhetoric, Vance recoiled, saying that any suggestion that he’d been responsible for inciting the bomb threats in Springfield was “disgusting.” The Ohio senator scolded Bash for sounding like a “Democratic propagandist” as she called him out on his reckless lying.

“There is nothing that I have said that has led to threats against these hospitals. These hospitals, the bomb threats and so forth. It’s disgusting. The violence is disgusting. We condemn all violence,” Vance said, downplaying his obvious role in inciting the violence.

Faced with Bash’s evidence, though, Vance struggled to keep up his story. Bash tried to give him an out, asking him whether he could “affirmatively say” that the story about migrants eating their neighbors’ pets was “a rumor that has no basis with evidence.”

Vance again said that he was describing the “firsthand account” of his constituents, before finally showing a crack in his week-long farce.

“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes,” Vance said.

“But it wasn’t just a meme,” Dana replied.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana,” Vance said, before trying to pivot to complain about Harris’s preferential treatment in the media and her public policy.

“You just said that you’re ‘creating’ a story,” Bash said. Vance fell silent for a moment.

“You just said that this is a story that you created,” Bash said.

“Yes!” Vance replied, not getting it.

“So the eating dogs and cats thing …” Bash asked.

“We are creat—we are creating … Dana,” Vance said firmly, obviously frustrated. “It comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re ‘creating a story’ meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.”

Billionaire X owner Elon Musk went a little too far with an assassination conspiracy over the weekend, but his attempt to walk it back made him seem even more callous.

Following a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump Sunday, Musk issued an alarming tweet questioning why the MAGA conservative had been targeted several times while there had been no such attempt to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk wrote.

Musk deleted the tweet after it received widespread backlash, with X users torching him for “inciting violence.”

By Monday, Musk had issued a couple of new tweets to explain away the atrocious comment. Apparently, he considered the violent invitation just a bad retelling of a “hilarious” joke.

“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on 𝕏,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”

But the nonapology wasn’t enough for Musk, who has been promised a seat in a potential second Trump administration. An hour after trying to brush off his own poor remarks, Musk shared a video that claimed to depict Democrats “calling for” political violence, including snippets of Nancy Pelosi referring to the 2020 fake electors as “enemies of the state” for undermining the last presidential election, as well as a clip of actor Robert de Niro sharing that he’d like to punch Trump “in the face.”

Donald Trump vowed to start his mass deportations in Springfield, Ohio, after a week of parroting racist right-wing rumors about the city’s population of Haitian immigrants, who are in the country legally.

While speaking about the possibility of making campaign stops in Springfield, where he claims Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets, and Aurora, Colorado, where he baselessly claimed a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment building, Trump made a disturbing threat.

“I can say this, we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio. Large deportations. We’re going to get these people out; we’re bringing them back to Venezuela,” Trump said. Setting aside that the former president can’t seem to keep even his racism straight, Trump’s dangerous promise wasn’t quite finished.

“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country—and we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.” Trump said.

Ratcheting up his fascist, anti-immigrant rhetoric, Trump painted an enormous target on two vulnerable immigrant communities based on fact-free tales shamelessly elevated by right-wing media and lawmakers. Already, Trump’s fearmongering has directly resulted in bomb threats against Springfield City Hall and local schools.

When one reporter asked Trump why he was still spreading misinformation in spite of statements from Springfield officials who discredited his claims, the former president couldn’t handle it.

“No, no, no. The real threat is what’s happening at our border,” Trump replied, downplaying the severe ramifications of his smear campaign.

While the town of Springfield, Ohio, experiences bomb threats as the result of a false racist rumor claiming that Haitian immigrants are capturing and eating people’s pets, ducks, and geese, Ohio’s lieutenant governor is making jokes.

Jon Husted thought it was fit to post a photo of two geese on X Friday with the caption: “Most Americans agree that these migrants should be deported.”

The post came after three schools in the town were shut down earlier in the day due to threats they received, and one day after several government facilities in the town had to be evacuated over bomb threats. The threats have drawn the ire of town leaders, such as Mayor Rob Rue, who said Thursday, “Unfortunately, right now we have to focus on making sure this rhetoric is dispelled, that these rumors are just—they’re just not true.

“You know, Springfield is a beautiful place, and your pets are safe in Springfield,” Rue added, laughing slightly at the absurdity of having to say such a thing.

The fake rumor has its origin in unproven social media posts and was egged on by the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, whose members marched through the town and spoke at Town Council meetings. Right-wing politicians, including Trump and running mate J.D. Vance, have repeated it, giving it a wider audience and fueling the threats.

Trump’s mention of the rumor during the debate, while sounding comical on its face, is likely the biggest driving force behind the its staying in the right-wing discourse and riling up the people behind the threats. Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine isn’t helping either, refusing to denounce the remarks from Vance and other leading Republicans on Tuesday. Husted and the state’s leaders should be trying to shut the rumor down and make sure people in Springfield, particularly the Haitian population, feel safe, instead of fueling a hateful mob. Better yet, so should Trump and Vance.

It’s been a very bad, no-good week for Donald Trump, and between his poor performance during Tuesday night’s debate and his racist conspiracy theory about Haitian migrants coming back to bite him, the Republican presidential nominee appears to have lost some of his composure.

During a rambling and largely nonsensical presser in Los Angeles on Friday, Trump constantly tripped over himself, outright rejecting important questions from reporters while making absurd claims, such as the fact that the country was “perfect” in January 2021.

In one portion of his speech, Trump badly botched the name of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, by referring to her as “Comrade Howard” while shaking his head. He also referred to Harris as a “radical left Marxist Communist fascist,” an ideological combination that is technically impossible, and attacked her for her “woman-made destruction.”

But not everything Trump said was outlandish or wrong. In another section of his speech, Trump dropped an undeniable detail: Not all states have a Pacific Ocean.

Shortly after the speech ended, Trump had one final thought to share, which he posted in brief on Truth Social: “#.” At the time of publication, the post had more than 2,700 likes.

As MAGA allies raise concern over Laura Loomer’s outlandish and conspiratorial remarks, Donald Trump simply shrugged them off in a press conference Friday afternoon. 

“Laura’s a supporter. I don’t control Laura, Laura has to say what she wants, she’s a free spirit,” Trump told reporters, when asked about her recent comments. “I can’t tell Laura what to do, she’s a supporter.” He then added that he didn’t know why a reporter would be asking about Loomer at all.  

It seems as though Trump has decided to play dumb about the discourse happening in his party about Loomer’s racist comments about Kamala Harris and her continued insistence that 9/11 was an inside job. 

“She is a strong person, she’s got strong opinions, and I don’t know what she said,” Trump said, as reporters proceeded to push the former president about his “supporter.”

“She made racist remarks about your opponent. She also espoused conspiracy theories about 9/11. Do you disavow those remarks?” asked one reporter. 

“Well, I have to see what the remarks are. You’re telling me for the first time,” said an increasingly frustrated Trump. “I’ll go take a look and put out a statement later on,” he replied, dodging the question. His claims that he was unaware are hard to believe, in part because Representative Marjorie Green said on Thursday that she had contacted Trump directly about Loomer’s behavior. 

“What value do you feel that Laura Loomer brings to you?” asked another reporter. 

“She brings a spirit to us,” replied Trump. “We have very spirited people.”

Donald Trump’s racist conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants has taken root in Springfield, Ohio—but the MAGA leader doesn’t seem to care about the real-world implications of his violent rhetoric.

Fielding questions from reporters in Los Angeles on Friday, the Republican presidential nominee aggressively veered away from answering a question about a swath of school closures in Springfield that followed the proliferation of the far-right conspiracy accusing Haitian immigrants of eating their neighbors’ pets in the Midwestern city.

“No, no, no. The real threat is what’s happening at our border,” Trump said. “Because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants coming in. And also dying. You have women dying as they come up, they’re coming up in large groups. We call it a caravan, I think I came up with that name but it’s really what it is—10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people—and you have large numbers of women being killed in those caravans coming up to this country.”

“And then when they get here, they can go into the country and they end up being sex slaves and everything else,” Trump continued. “Those are your real problems. Not the problem that you’re talking about.”

The city at the center of the conspiracy shut down three of its schools on Friday, reported ABC News. Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary were evacuated after receiving unspecified information from the Springfield Police Division, while Roosevelt Middle School was closed from the beginning of the school day due to similar threats, reported the Springfield News-Sun.

Springfield saw even more closures on Thursday, when several other schools and a significant portion of Springfield’s government facilities—including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Ohio License Bureau, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School—were shut down due to bomb threats.

Multiple city officials and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine have stated that the conspiracy is false. But that hasn’t stopped the Republican presidential ticket from endangering an entire town’s worth of people.

Donald Trump still thinks highly of his Tuesday debate performance, and lashed out at a Fox News reporter Friday who suggested it didn’t go too well.

After a long, rambling speech by Trump, the reporter mentioned the former president’s recent admission that he doesn’t want another presidential debate, and noted that some of his Republican allies said that he “missed the mark” during the debate. Trump cut her off, and dismissed the characterization. 

“No, no, no, excuse me. Most of my Republican allies have said I was great. You’re just like a lot of other people at Fox. Why don’t you say, 94 percent of the Republicans said I did phenomenally in the debate,” Trump said. 

“Some said that I could have been tougher. I don’t know how I could have been tougher when I said he’s the worst president and she is the worst vice president in the history of our country,” Trump continued.

Trump is notoriously thin-skinned, and has a love-hate relationship with Fox. The morning after Tuesday’s debate, he vented on Fox & Friends and demanded Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham moderate a future debate. In the past, he’s complained that the network hasn’t been doing enough to help him, even though they’ve long been a conservative entity, and have spread even his most far-fetched election conspiracies. 

Is this another example of Trump’s ongoing cognitive decline? During Tuesday’s debate, the former president was easily baited and outwitted by Kamala Harris. He couldn’t stick to the game plan made by his advisers of tying today’s problems to the vice president, and he even  tried to combine right-wing talking points on transgender people, migrants, and criminals. On Afghanistan policy, he gave a word-salad answer. 

There are also his various mental lapses during the presidential campaign. He’s seemingly forgotten who he’s running against, made weird rants about subjects like bacon and wind power, and accidentally praised Harris and President Biden’s record at one point. Perhaps Fox needs to wait a few more days and treat the former president with kid gloves. They seem to be doing so already, editing out his criticism Friday when replaying his comments. Soon enough, he might even forget this exchange even happened.