The mayor of Springfield is the latest Ohio politician to push back against Donald Trump after the former president spread lies about the city's Haitian immigrant population.
During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump gave airtime to a far-right conspiracy theory that insisted Haitian immigrants who had recently settled in Springfield were eating local pets. That story, which filtered into the Trump campaign by way of running mate JD Vance, is an admitted fabrication. That hasn't stopped a deluge of bomb threats and other disruptions in the town since the rumor took hold in GOP circles.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Republican mayor Rob Rue worried about the "strain" that a Trump visit would bring to Springfield.
“It would be an extreme strain on our resources," he shared, per NBC News. "So it’d be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit."
Rue's comments follow a similar sentiment from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. Over the weekend, the Republican governor countered Trump's claims about immigrants eating pets and lauded recent immigrants to Ohio.
"What we know is that Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move and Springfield has really made a great resurgence," he said, during an interview with ABC This Week.
Both President Joe Biden and Harris have countered Trump's claims about Haitian immigrants and accused the former president of spreading dangerous rhetoric.
“This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop,” Biden said in a press conference at the White House last week.
