Former President Donald Trump plans to visit Springfield, Ohio “soon,” a source familiar with the plan said.
The city has become the center of a national political battle over immigration as Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, spread baseless conspiracy theories that Haitian immigrants are eating dogs and other pets in Springfield.
While the unsubstantiated claims have been circulating online in right-wing circles for weeks, they became mainstream last week when Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met for a debate in Philadelphia.
“In Springfield, they’re eating dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people who live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said on the debate stage.
Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy also announced on X that he will visit the city on Thursday.
Officials in Springfield and elsewhere in Ohio have strongly condemned any claims that immigrants in the city ate pets.
The Springfield Police Department told NBC News in a statement Monday before the debate that “there have been no credible reports or specific allegations of harm, injury or abuse of pets in the immigrant community.”
GOP Gov. Mike DeWine told ABC News on Sunday that there is no evidence that Springfield immigrants ate pets and that conspiracy theories were “rubbish.”
“Haitians in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really rebounded,” DeWine said.
Since the debate, the city’s municipal buildings have been the target of bomb threats, and immigrants in Springfield have reported feeling unsafe.
“We’re in pain right now,” Mayor Rob Rue said Friday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW,” adding that if Trump decided to visit, “it could be a difficult, very difficult visit.”
Asked what she would say to Trump if she had the chance, Rue said: “We need help, not hate. And we need calm voices.”
On Sunday, Vance dismissed his claims about Haitian immigrants as baseless, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “I hear you say they’re baseless, but I’m not repeating them because I made them up out of thin air.
“I repeat them because my constituents say these things happen,” he said. “Obviously these rumors exist because the voters are seeing it with their own eyes.”
Later in an interview with CNN, Vance repeated his remarks, blaming the “American media” for not paying attention to what he claimed was happening in Springfield.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media really pay attention to the suffering of the American people, I will,” Vance said.
He was asked what he meant by “creating[ing] stories,” Vance said. “I say we’re creating a story, which means we’re creating American media focusing on it.”
When asked if she agreed that Trump and Vance’s allegations were untrue, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Lara Trump, who is Trump’s daughter-in-law, told Fox News, “It’s not for me to decide. That information came directly from the people of Springfield, not anyone in our campaign — Donald Trump didn’t come up with this himself.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
