“They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.” — Donald Trump, at a New Hampshire rally in 2023
During the debate, former president Donald Trump (R) has made people weirded out by his claim of immigrants eating pets.
Perhaps most striking was Trump amplifying a false claim that has gone viral that numerous Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents' pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.
"They're eating the dogs! The people that came in. They're eating the cats! They're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there," Trump said during the debate.
Harris laughed and shook her head. The moderator said there had been no credible reports of pets being harmed. Trump countered that he had seen TV interviews of people who said their dogs had been taken and eaten.
As much as people would love to pigeonhole Trump as nothing more than an angry racist white boomer, there may be only a few that noticed the Trump campaign’s use of blood libel when making such ridiculous claims.
The lie has echoes of another conspiracy theory: blood libel, the conspiracy theory that arose in the Middle Ages alleging that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in matzo. Later, the Nazis invoked the conspiracy to stoke and validate hatred against Jews.
No, pets aren’t children, but today we often treat them as members of the family. In our society, eating a pet is an act of huge trespass, the likes of which, it’s understood, would only be done by someone despicable and nearly inhuman.
And, like the Jews, the Haitian immigrants in Ohio are a relatively new demographic group that has drawn local ire. Around 20,000 Haitians have moved — legally, with valid work permits — to Springfield in the past few years, taking local manufacturing jobs. It was a major shift for the town of about 60,000, and locals have been resentful, complaining about the impact on housing and schools in the area.
Even before the allegations of stealing and eating pets, residents blamed the community for crime in the city and voiced suspicion of Vodou, a religion widely practiced in Haiti, even as a factory owner praised the reliability and work ethic of his Haitian employees, and a pastor said the community has revitalized his church. Nevertheless, white nationalists, carrying rifles and flying swastikas, marched down the streets of Springfield in August.
But his use of blood libel isn’t anything new, given that he used the phrase “invisible enemy” during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Once we OPEN UP OUR GREAT COUNTRY, and it will be sooner rather than later, the horror of the Invisible Enemy, except for those that sadly lost a family member or friend, must be quickly forgotten. Our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!”
While it may seem like we are in 2020 and not in 1348, this rhetoric about the “invisible enemy” has been heard loud and clear—by protesters outside the Columbus, Ohio statehouse this weekend holding signs depicting Jews as rats who are the “real plague,” and by the man who tried to blow up a Jewish nursing home in Massachusetts.
There is no other way to say it; just like “America First,” the phrase “invisible enemy” has an ugly history that is now being revived and exploited at the kind of moment when such ugliness thrives—when everyone is scared for their lives and their basic survival.
The idea that “someone” is “secretly” trying to destroy you in a way you cannot see — poisoning your wells, for instance, as Jews were falsely accused of doing during the Black Death—has now morphed into the idea that the coronavirus is a secret plan by “others” to destroy freedom.
Sound familiar? Sound like something previously published and distributed by Henry Ford?
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” claims to describe how Jews invisibly control the world. It’s supposed to be the “proof” of this “invisible enemy” idea.
Now, it’s true that Trump has the support of “good-hearted” people like Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. But to say that Ye has skeletons in his closet is an understatement. (No, we are not referring to Ye being known as a gayfish.)
One of the photos that popped up happened to be Kanye West, and DT didn’t know where to start with Yeezy, but decided to channel Avril Lavigne’s 2002 Grammy-nominated hit with his description of Ye.
“He’s a very complicated,” Trump said of West. “Let’s say complicated because he is. He’s a really nice guy, but he can get some people into trouble. And he can get some other people. He’s got a good heart — he does, he does, but he’s complicated.”
“The Jews are out to get me,” said West. “The Jews are stealing all my money.”
[...]
“Hitler was great,” West allegedly said. “Hitler was an innovator! He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars.”
[...]
“Hitler was a good person,” West continued, according to the suit. “Jewish people are bad, and they run America. And Chinese people run them.”
[...]
“The Zionist Jews are out to get me. They are a part of human sex trafficking,” West allegedly said. “The Jews are working with Adidas to freeze up my money to try and make me broke! The Jews can’t stop me. Adidas can’t stop me. I will be the richest person in the world.”
During the same meeting, West warned that he was going first after “the Jews, then the gays.”
“Gay people are not true Christians [...] and Gay people are controlled by Bill Gates so that they don’t have children for population control.”
As for JD Vance, he noticeably has yet to comment on Graham William Reid, the teacher who was arrested — twice, rather — for killing kittens. Initially, Reid has committed murder in order to “feel powerful” and to get over his traumatic childhood.
