With less than six weeks until Election Day and early voting already underway in four states, Donald Trump seems to have locked in on his closing message for what he acknowledges will be his final presidential campaign if he loses in November. It’s the same message that launched his political career nine years ago: attacking immigrants.
In a sign anti-immigrant sentiment is the highest it’s been in over two decades, Gallup reports as of June, 55% of Americans want to see immigration decreased. In October of 2001, following the September 11 terror attacks, 58% wanted immigration decreased.
Trump’s anti-immigrant attacks reached a crescendo two weeks ago during the presidential debate against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Seemingly out of nowhere, he dropped his “pet-eating” lie that would lead to dozens of bomb threats across more than 20 facilities in the small town of Springfield, Ohio.
“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country,” Trump said, attacking Vice President Harris and President Joe Biden. “And look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, 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. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”
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That lie was quickly debunked but Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance, continued to spread it.
This week Trump excised his pet-eating derangement, adding in another element: machine guns.
“We can’t have factories being built where you have criminals walking down the street with the worst weapons that you’ve ever seen, with machine guns and everything else,” Trump declared Tuesday at an event billed as a manufacturing policy speech in which he appeared to come out in favor of an assault weapons ban.
On Wednesday, the ex-president, a convicted felon who legally cannot own even a pistol, standing in front of a banner that read “Jobs Jobs Jobs,” expanded his claims at a rally in North Carolina (video below).
“But Kamala should have closed the border years ago, and we wouldn’t have hostile takeovers of Springfield, Ohio, Aurora Colorado, where they’re actually going in with massive machine gun-type equipment. they’re going in with guns that are beyond even military scope, and they’re taking over apartment buildings, they’re taking over, real estate – they’re in the real estate development business. Congratulations,” Trump said sarcastically. “These are, in that case, people from Venezuela. Young street gang members that were sent here by the Venezuelan government.”
Mark Jacob, an author and former Chicago Tribune editor turned media critic, blasted Trump and the mainstream media: “Trump’s lies to foment hatred against immigrants keep getting more vivid and unhinged, and major media are DOING A TERRIBLE JOB of explaining how dangerous this is.”
Luis Moreno, a former U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, remarked: “Besides eating cats, Haitian immigrants are now deploying crew served laser beam systems. We need to find out who is training these people!”
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Trump had made similar, false claims during the debate, saying, “we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they’re coming in and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions. Unions are going to be affected very soon. And you see what’s happening. You see what’s happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country. And they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous. They’re at the highest level of criminality. And we have to get them out. We have to get them out fast.”
The New York Times reported Trump’s claims of hostile takeovers by Venezuelan gangs appeared to originate from allegations made by a landlord.
“As far back as May 2023, Aurora officials had been trying to force an out-of-state landlord to fix up three blighted apartment complexes,” The Times reported earlier this month. “In July 2024, the landlord, CBZ Management, which says it is based in Colorado and Brooklyn, offered a new argument for why it couldn’t repair the buildings: Venezuelan gangs had taken over, and the property managers had been forced to flee.”
Those claims were quickly repeated, and later, a public relations agent hired by the landlord sent an even more elaborate story to a local Fox affiliate as a “tip.”
On Tuesday a nonprofit representing Haitian immigrants filed criminal charges against Trump and Vance, through its attorney, thanks to Ohio state law that allows private individuals to do so. They have asked a judge to issue an arrest warrant.
Watch Trump’s remarks from earlier Wednesday below or at this link.
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