Donald Trump and JD Vance Are Attempting Domestic Terrorism by Proxy

The GOP ticket is wreaking violent havoc in its own backyard.

Photo by little plant on Unsplash

Three and a half years ago I caught some static for a Spoiler Alerts column comparing the post-January 6th GOP to an Americanized version of Hezbollah in which I wrote. “A significant fraction of Trump supporters are comfortable transforming the GOP into an American Hezbollah — a political party that also has an armed wing to coerce other political actors through violence…. For 170 years, the Republican Party has exercised political voice to attain political power. In 2021, too many of its members and leaders are acting as though the only way Republicans can win power is through an exit to violence. The more they lean on the exit option, the less viable their voice becomes, and the more likely they will eventually exit.”

What has become clear over the past week is that both Donald Trump and JD Vance have unapologetically doubled down on that approach. Furthermore, it is clear that neither of them cares if the collateral damage from their incitements to violence includes their own supporters and constituents.

To wind the clock back a month: there had been some stories in the mainstream media about the effect of an influx of legal Haitian immigrants into the small town of Springfield, Ohio. Those stories — one by NPR’s Jasmine Garsd and one by the New York Times’ Miriam Jordan — paint a complex picture. Long story short, ten years ago, Springfield was hemorrhaging population and vitality. A concerted effort by state and local authorities to attract manufacturing investment paid off — and a lot of those factories hired legal Haitian immigrants over the past few years. The exact number of Haitians arriving into the town and its environs is unclear, but everyone acknowledges a rapid increase over the past four years or so.

The stories make it clear that their arrival has had some pluses and minuses. On the plus side, the town is growing again and the Haitians have created thriving cultural neighborhoods in the town. On the minus side, city services like hospitals and schools are now overburdened. This caused local officials to request more federal support. It also caused some angry locals to pop off on social media and at public forums.

Enter JD Vance and Donald Trump, who saw a city that spoke to their campaign theme of immigration restrictionism and then poured kerosene on the entire town. A local woman posted a baseless rumor on Facebook — she subsequently took it down and expressed remorse that it “exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen” — and then far-right activists and neo-Nazis fanned the flames even further, hyping the allegations on Twitter. By Monday of last week, Vance was tweeting, “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” And then Trump made his, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets” claim in his abysmal debate performance Tuesday night:

For the past week, Springfield officials pushed back hard on the allegations made by Trump and Vance. The Springfield Police Department refuted Vance’s claim last Monday. As ABC News’ David Muir pointed out during the debate, city officials said there was no evidence supporting Trump’s allegations. The Republican mayor of Springfield made it clear that the rumors of pets being abducted were completely unfounded. This weekend the Republican governor of Ohio said on This Week about the eating pet rumors, “Look, there’s a lot of garbage on the internet and, you know, this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There’s no evidence of this at all.” He also praised the Haitian residents of Springfield as being partially responsible for Springfield’s “great resurgence.”

The problem is that Trump and Vance have been unapologetic in hyping up the panic even more. As the Washington Post reported on Friday, “For days, Donald Trump and his allies have zeroed in on Springfield, Ohio, amplifying baseless claims that Haitian immigrants there are eating others’ pets. The promotion of such rumors, which thrust the city into the national spotlight, is rooted in a centuries-old racist trope of vilifying newcomers to the United States and highlights the country’s present-day divides, historians say.”

The resulting hysteria has paralyzed daily life Springfield. A bomb threat Thursday that forced the evacuation of Springfield’s City Hall and other buildings “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community,” according to Springfield’s mayor. Haitian families living in the town now fear for their safety. Schools have been closed because of bomb threats as well.

Politico’s Adam Wren reports that the threats of violence have caused the Republican elected officials in Springfield to plead for the GOP ticket — which includes the junior senator from Ohio — to shut the hell up:

By the end of a long week that had seen his city broadsided by the leader of his own party, the mayor, Rob Rue, had had enough.

“Any political leader that takes the national stage and has the national spotlight needs to understand the gravity of the words that they have for cities like ours, and what they say impacts our city,” Rue, who said he was tired and angry, told POLITICO. “And we’ve had bomb threats the last two days. We’ve had personal threats the last two days, and it’s increasing, because the national stage is swirling this up. Springfield, Ohio, is caught in a political vortex, and it is a bit out of control. We are a wonderful city — a beautiful town. And for what it’s worth, your pets are safe in Springfield, Ohio.”

Asked whether he is going to vote for Trump, the 54-year-old mayor said, “I’m just probably not going to answer that question.” He said he is deeply “frustrated” with Trump’s remarks and how Springfield has become collateral damage.

“We have a big-hearted community, and we’re being smeared in a way we don’t deserve,” Rue said….

Trump took no responsibility for the threats. “I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats,” he told reporters in Las Vegas. “I know that it’s been taken over by illegal migrants, and that’s a terrible thing that happened. Springfield was this beautiful town, and now they’re going through hell. It’s a sad thing. Not going to happen with me, I can tell you right now.”

Similarly, Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash that he didn’t care whether the stories were accurate or not: “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.”

As Jamelle Bouie noted in the New York Times, Vance’s position is both morally and factually indefensible:

The main impact of those lies and smears — which began Monday when Vance told his followers on X that “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” and continued Tuesday when Donald Trump told an audience of 67 million people that “they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats” — has been to terrorize the entire Springfield community.

On Thursday, bomb threats led to the evacuation of two elementary schools, city hall and the state motor vehicle agency’s local facility. The mayor has received threats to his office, and local families fear for the safety of their children. Several Springfield residents, including Nathan Clark — father of Aiden Clark, the 11-year-old killed when his school bus was struck by a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant — have pleaded with Trump and Vance to end their attacks and leave the community in peace.

“My son was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti,” said Clark, rebutting a claim made by Vance. “This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation, but don’t spin this towards hate,” he continued. “Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible for any political purpose.”

This direct rebuke from a grieving father has stopped neither Vance nor Trump from spreading anti-immigrant — and specifically anti-Haitian — lies and fanning the flames of hatred. “Don’t let biased media shame you into not discussing this slow moving humanitarian crisis in a small Ohio town,” Vance said on Friday. “We should talk about it every day.”

The “humanitarian crisis,” it should be said, is the revitalization of Springfield after years of decline. Haitian immigrants have filled jobs, bought homes and filled city coffers with property and sales taxes. And while there are growing pains from the sudden influx of new residents, the charge that Haitian immigrants have, in Vance’s words, brought a “massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates and crime” is false. He is lying about people, the very people he swore an oath to represent, in ways that will inspire additional threats of violence and may well bring physical harm to the community….

In waging rhetorical war on the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, Vance has clarified the meaning of his convention speech. It does not matter, to Vance, that these Haitian newcomers came here legally, under the Temporary Protected Status program. It does not matter that they filled a valuable need. It does not matter that they reversed a slow collapse that has already sapped the life from so many former industrial towns. It does not matter that they work hard and seem eager, by all accounts, to establish themselves as productive members of the community.

What matters to Vance is who they are, where they come from and what they look like. They don’t belong to this soil, he might say, and therefore they don’t belong. Right now, the most Vance can do to wage this war is use his words. I shudder to think what might be possible if he had the authority of the state to wield as well.

This is not the only city that Trump and Vance have smeared due to baseless rumors. Trump’s claims about a Venezuelan gang takeover of Aurora, Colorado are also based on fake news.

It should be noted that Trump was the target of a failed assassination attempt yesterday as well. In response, President Biden said, appropriately, “there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country.”

The difference between Trump and the innocent residents of Springfield, Ohio, is that Trump has the protection of the United States Secret Service. Trump’s targets of political violence possess far fewer defenses. And make no mistake: Trump and Vance’s willingness to lie, deceive, and stigmatize minorities is behind the threats of violence affecting Springfield, Ohio this week.

They are attempting domestic terrorism by proxy. And if they keep it up, they will eventually have blood on their hands.