Donald Trump’s attempt to attack U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris with a widely debunked online falsehood about Haitian migrants backfired on the Republican nominee, becoming one of the signature moments of their first — and possibly only — debate.
Halfway through their encounter Tuesday night in Philadelphia, Trump assailed Harris over U.S. border policy and claimed that migrants in the Ohio city of Springfield were "eating the pets of the people that live there.” ABC News moderator David Muir interjected quickly to clarify that the network had contacted the city’s manager, who said that there were no credible reports of pets being harmed by immigrants.
Trump’s assertion echoed apocryphal stories circulating worldwide on X and other social media sites that Haitian migrants in Springfield were behind a wave of local crime and to blame for the disappearances of cats and dogs. Supporters of the former president — including X owner Elon Musk, who has nearly 200 million followers on the platform — promoted and reposted the claims in the days before the debate.
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