Donald Trump Announces He Will Go to Springfield — But Says People May 'Never See Me Again'

Quite recently in a rally on Wednesday, former president Donald Trump announced his intention to visit Springfield, Ohio, in the next two weeks. Curiously, he went on to say that he would be lucky to escape the besieged city alive. As reported by The Daily Beast, Trump stated, "You may never see me again, but that’s OK. Got to do what I got to do. Whatever happened to Trump?’ ‘Well, he never got out of Springfield.’"

As a result, the former president came under fire from social media users who felt he had implied that people in Springfield might attempt to harm him. One user stated on X, "Trump needs to stay away from the people of Springfield, Ohio, and stop terrorizing them with lies!" Another account stated, "He just keeps lying about and disrespecting their entire community. They don't want him there." A user went so far as to ridicule him by directly revealing his intended meaning: "Trump appeared to suggest that immigrants will try to kill and perhaps eat him in the coming weeks."

A local resident then proceeded, "I live in Springfield, Ohio, and there is no evidence that crime has increased at all and zero evidence of any Haitian crime. They are good Christian people and I may prefer them to the locals most days." Subsequently, another user added, "Well, I feel bad for Springfield because they’ve asked him not to come there, but I like the part where we won’t see him again."

Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have made Haitian immigrants a central focus of their campaign rhetoric since the debate. A prior outburst by Trump included slamming Haitian immigrants and equating asylum applicants with criminals with mental illness. As reported by Politico, the former president stated earlier this month in Arizona, "A recording of 911 calls show that residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town’s geese. They’re taking the geese. You know where the geese are? In the park, in the lake. And even walking off with their pets. ‘My dog’s been taken. My dog’s been stolen."

In fact, when Trump squared up against Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he continued to fervently promote the false narrative despite the reaction he had received over his assertions. As reported by The Independent, Trump said at the time, "They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there." Despite the story's seemingly absurd nature, it has been used by several top Republicans to promote their anti-immigration policies and reinforce racist stereotypes against minority groups.

The narrative began when Erika Lee, a resident of Springfield, shared a strange story on a neighborhood Facebook page. In it, she said that several Haitian immigrants lived on a property where a woman discovered her dead cat dangling from a tree, about to be skinned, killed, and eaten. Lee later clarified to NewsGuard that the story was passed along from someone she had never met: the kid of a neighbor's acquaintance.