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The Republican mayor of Springfield has said he would be “fine” with Donald Trump canning his planned visit to the town, after the former president touted a baseless rumor that the city’s Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets.
At a City Hall news conference on Tuesday, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue explained that “it would be an extreme strain on our resources” if Trump visited.
“So it’d be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit,” he added.
The Republican presidential candidate is planning to visit the Ohio town “soon,” a source familiar with Trump’s schedule told NBC News earlier this week.
It is not clea when exactly Trump plans to visit the town but it comes after he peddled a false claim that immigrants are “eating the dogs” of Springfield residents during his debate against Kamala Harris on September 10.
The conspiracy theory, which originated in a Springfield resident Facebook group, gained traction when it was pushed by Trump’s running mate JD Vance.
It has quickly debunked by local authorities but that didn’t stop Trump peddling it anyway.
Since then, the city has been racked by at least 33 hoax bomb threats, forcing schools to close down.
Rue told NBC News that state troopers and sniffer dogs were in every Springfield school at 6am on Tuesday sweeping for explosive devices.
He expressed hope that the saga will “quiet down.”
“If you have a national stage and you’re a national politician, please understand the words that you’re saying have great weight, and how they can negatively affect a community like Springfield, Ohio,” Rue said.
“We need help not hate. We need peace,” the mayor added.
The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign and Rue for more information.
Trump’s plans to visit the town comes after he survived a second assassinaion attempt in the space of two months on Sunday. Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested for allegedly pointing a rifle through a fence at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while the business mogul was golfing.
