Donald Trump and JD Vance Brutally Trolled for ‘Racist’ Cats and Ducks Rumor About Immigrants

Published on: September 11, 2024 at 9:30 PM
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L): Photo by Jeff Swensen; (R): Photo by Kevin Dietsch

Ahead of the 2024 elections, Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance became fodder for the trolls yet again for recent bizarre claims; the Ohio senator recently fueled the fire to a weird conspiracy theory in which he spread unsubstantiated rumors that Haitian immigrants were killing and eating pets and park wildlife in his state while Trump was painted as a rescuer.

Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits
Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits

The right-wingers saw an opportunity in this false report and echoed the claim on social media. For instance, the House Judiciary GOP account shared the AI image of Trump grabbing cats and ducks in rescuing motion on X, formerly Twitter, captioning, “Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio!”

But, the internet turned the tables by trolling both Vance and Trump for using AI to create a new false narrative, as per Raw Story . An artist who trolls the MAGA movement with his art named Gary Peterson, @GaryPetersonUSA , mocked them with another fake image and wrote, “While wokesters want to eat our animals, President Trump will not only build a new Ark of the Covenant but will make the zoos pay for it, just as Noah did when he freed our pets from Egypt.”

Meanwhile, Jon Schwartz, @schwarz , a former columnist for the Intercept, suggested another satirical conspiracy theory for the Republicans: “The right should combine its two best urban legends, and start saying Haitians immigrants in Ohio are eating *children who identify as cats*—and have been nabbing them when the kids are using their litter boxes at public school. Rogan will start talking about that for sure.”

@Number10cat sarcastically joked, “Cat here; we’re fine – try protecting school kids.” Documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor @lawindsor , took a jibe, “Is RFK Jr on the loose there?” Multimedia journalist David Leavitt @David_Leavitt slammed, “Using AI to push a false narrative because your candidate hates animals.”

The Washington Post correspondent Philip Bump was baffled when he had to explain why a slew of AI-generated images showcasing Trump rescuing cats and ducks were going viral on the internet. However, after he fact-checked the source of these strange snaps, he found out that it was actually Vance who made these claims with little to no evidence. Bump wrote, “Trump was shown protecting ducks and kitty cats. This is a central reason that Vance and others on the right are susceptible to being described as ‘weird.'”

As per The New Republic , ‘right-wingers seemed to have conflated’ two separate reports. One news came from Canton, Ohio, where a US woman (not an immigrant) was arrested for allegedly killing and eating a cat. On the other hand, there were ‘complaints from residents in Springfield’—which is more than 170 miles away from Canton. However, the Springfield, Ohio, police department said that ‘they have received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten.’ Additionally, Bump also noted that the Haitian immigrants are not there in the area illegally, contradicting Vance’s no-proof claims about the minority community.

The roots of this conspiracy theory seem to have grown from a September 9, 2024, social media post, when Vance targeted Kamala Harris for her border issues , writing, “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”

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