Originally Published: September 13, 2024 11:24 a.m.

It was one of the most shocking and disturbing lines in the modern history of presidential politics: During his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump made a wild assertion about a small city in Ohio that has recently seen an influx of migrants.

"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in — they're eating the cats," Trump said. "They're eating — they're eating the pets of the people that live there."

The claim of migrants killing domestic animals had been thoroughly debunked before it hit Trump's microphone. One of the debate moderators, David Muir, immediately responded to highlight reporting from his television network indicating Trump's shocking comments had no basis in reality. But despite the fact checking, Trump's incendiary statements trended on social media and led some right-wing allies to rush to his defense. 

This fear campaign against Springfield's Haitian immigrants contains echoes of some of the oldest xenophobic stereotypes. And, in this case, it has led to very real threats against the migrant community. 

The path the inflammatory rumors took from the fever swamps to the debate stage to an on-the-ground, Trump-fueled furor in Springfield is a new spin through a story arc that has become familiar in the MAGA era: The most out-there right-wing extremists — including, in this case, notorious neo-Nazis — and GOP politicians reinforce each others' narratives, with real-world ramifications for everyday people. 

The trouble first began more than two months ago, when Republicans — including Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) — began zeroing in on the town. Vance began to speak about Springfield in early July, bringing up the immigrants at a Senate Banking Committee hearing featuring Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell. 

There, Vance mentioned Springfield as part of a line of questioning that sought to tie immigration to inflated housing costs across the country. He cited a letter that Springfield's city manager had sent to him and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) the day before, attributing a housing crisis in the city to an influx of over 15,000 Haitian immigrants. 

Vance broadened the issue in his question, saying, "In my conversations with folks in Springfield, it's not just housing." School and hospital services had come under strain as well, he said. 

"There are a whole host of ways in which this immigration problem, I think, is having very real human consequences," Vance said.

Vance ratcheted up his rhetoric the following day at the National Conservatism conference. On stage at that event, Vance let loose a stream of inflammatory statements, accusing "illegals" of having "overwhelmed" the city. 

Other Republicans, including Bernie Moreno, who is running for Ohio's other Senate seat, also framed the situation in Springfield as an "an insane demographic change" that was straining resources. But Carl Ruby, an immigrant advocate and senior pastor at Central Christian Church in Springfield, said it was Vance who did the most to drag the town into the spotlight.

"The sad thing is none of this was stirred up until JD Vance started publicizing it," Ruby told TPM. "It was an internal thing that we were handling and handling well."