Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was going to visit Springfield, Ohio, “in the next two weeks” after repeatedly promoting an unfounded conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in the city eating people’s pets.
“I’m going to go there in the next two weeks, I’m going to Springfield and I’m going to Aurora. You may never see me again, but that’s OK. I gotta do what I gotta do,” Trump said at a rally in Uniondale, New York, also referring to Aurora, Colorado — another city he has used to promote false claims about immigration.
Trump on Wednesday said he thought the mayor of Springfield was “a very nice person” but slammed him for not expelling the migrants, who Trump falsely claimed are undocumented.
The city of Springfield says on its website that approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Clark County — which has a population of 136,000 — and that Haitian immigrants are there legally as part of a parole program that allows citizens and lawful residents to apply to have their family members from Haiti come to the United States.
