Why Is Trump Posting So Many AI Cat Pictures

When Donald Trump said during the statesmanlike statement connected Tuesday that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs successful Ohio, it was astir apt the archetypal clip astir Americans had ever heard specified a ridiculous thing. But it’s wide it won’t beryllium the past clip if our dumbest surviving president has his way.

The thought that migrants to the U.S. are eating pets is simply a lie, of course. It’s a prevarication that bubbled up from the worst corners of the net earlier being repeated by a antheral who wants to go the astir almighty idiosyncratic successful the satellite again. And it’s present go evident that Trump is going to support repeating that prevarication connected TV, astatine his rallies and utilizing AI-generated images connected Truth Social to assistance marque his insidiously racist point.

Screenshot: Truth Social

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The radical that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating… they’re eating the pets of the radical that unrecorded there,” Trump said during the statement against Kamala Harris successful Philadelphia connected Tuesday.

Police successful Springfield person denied that immoderate reports beryllium of anyone—let unsocial migrants successful the town—stealing and eating household pets. But that hasn’t stopped a torrent of maltreatment and intimidation from descending connected the town’s migrant community. Several buildings successful Springfield received weaponry threats connected Thursday, forcing an simple schoolhouse and City Hall to shut down for the time arsenic a precautionary measure.

Trump helped bring nationalist attraction to Springfield, Ohio, and it’s been rather a nightmare for residents there. One begetter whose lad was killed successful a car mishap asked the erstwhile president to halt utilizing his lad arsenic a governmental limb during a metropolis assembly gathering connected September 10. The Haitian Times besides reports that immoderate migrants who unrecorded successful Springfield are being terrorized by right-wing extremists who are vandalizing cars. One pistillate reported that her car adjacent had acerb poured connected it and said she was acrophobic to permission her home.

“I’m going to person to determination due to the fact that this country is nary longer bully for me,” the pistillate told the Haitian Times. “I can’t adjacent permission my location to spell to Walmart. I’m anxious and scared.”

The metropolis manager of Springfield, Bryan Heck, posted a video connected Facebook astir the “misinformation circulating connected societal media” that had been “further amplified by the governmental rhetoric successful the current, highly charged statesmanlike predetermination cycle.”

Heck didn’t notation Trump by name, but helium didn’t person to. The Republican campaigner for president is the 1 who’s brought this garbage to the mainstream aft it percolated connected Facebook, 4Chan, Truth Social, and Elon Musk’s X. And a statesmanlike statement watched by roughly 67 cardinal people connected Tuesday helped catapult it to caller heights.

Like each media successful 2024, this benignant of propaganda works wrong a benignant of feedback loop. The worst of humanity spreads immoderate far-right lies successful places similar X, a tract that’s been overrun by Nazis ever since Musk bought the tract successful precocious 2022. Then Trump helps elevate it onto accepted media channels earlier it makes its mode backmost to the internet. Audio from Trump’s insane ramblings rapidly became a meme, some during and aft the debate, and continued to get remixed connected much mainstream societal media platforms similar Instagram and TikTok.

JD Vance, Trump’s moving mate and all-around weird guy, did his portion arsenic well, spreading the racist bullshit connected X some earlier and aft the debate. Vance claimed that his bureau had gotten calls astir incidents wherever migrants had eaten pets, but helium provided nary grounds for that assertion and admitted successful the tweet “It’s possible, of course, that each of these rumors volition crook retired to beryllium false.” And arsenic a newsman astatine PBS Newshour mentioned portion reporting connected Vance’s nonsense, you person to inquire yourself 1 elemental question: who seems similar the idiosyncratic you’d telephone if your favored was stolen? The police, who reported that nary incidents similar this person occurred successful Springfield oregon your section subordinate of Congress?

Trump posted a fig of AI-generated images astir the slanderous lies against migrants Thursday connected Truth Social. Many of the images featured cats, including 1 that read, “Don’t fto them devour us, ballot for Trump!” and different that read, “Kamala hates me.”

One older antheral extracurricular Trump’s rally successful Tucson, Arizona connected Thursday was spotted with a motion that looked identical to 1 of the AI images Trump shared connected Truth Social. The representation depicts Trump moving distant from 2 Black men portion carrying cats. The substance connected the racist motion reads, “Make Pets SAFE Again.”

Photo by REBECCA NOBLE/AFP via Getty Images

The rally wrong was peculiarly hateful, adjacent by Trump standards. And it was conscionable the latest motion that Trump wants to marque these lies astir migrants a regular portion of his stump speech. The erstwhile president talked repeatedly astir Springfield, Ohio, insisting that Haitians are “destroying their mode of life” successful that community.

At his rally successful Arizona today, Donald Trump continued his racist battle against migrant Haitians, claiming they're taking the geese from the parkland and eating the pets.#TrumpRally #DonaldTrump #theyreeatingthepets #TheyreEatingtheCats #TheyreEatingthedogs pic.twitter.com/O13A3OVSZw

— Dana Abercrombie (@sagesurge) September 12, 2024

Trump talks a large game, but for each his bluster picking connected migrants, he’s intelligibly terrified of Harris. Writing connected his societal media level Truth Social, Trump announced that helium wouldn’t beryllium participating successful different statement with his Democratic opponent, contempt her run asking for different debate. Trump wrote a precise long-winded build-up, giving excuse aft non-sensical excuse, earlier yet dropping the quality successful all-caps.

“KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump wrote.

Trump is doing poorly successful the polls, with caller surveys taken aft the statement and published Thursday showing Harris with a beardown pb successful the nationalist tally. A caller canvass from Morning Consult has Harris astatine 50% and Trump astatine 45%. A canvass from Ipsos released Thursday had Harris 47% and Trump 42%.

And Harris is doing overmuch amended erstwhile you look astatine apt voters alternatively than conscionable registered voters, a radical that astir apt features galore registered Republicans who volition enactment location connected Election Day due to the fact that their campaigner is specified an embarrassing loser. A caller YouGov/Times canvass had Harris 49% and Trump 45% among apt voters, and up conscionable 1 point, Harris 46% and Trump 45% among registered voters.

Nobody knows for definite who’s going to triumph connected November 5. But we tin accidental with immoderate assurance that Trump is going to get progressively hopeless with his attacks connected immigrants, women, and who knows what different susceptible radical helium sets his sights on. With immoderate luck, the American nationalist volition disregard him and we tin get retired of this happening without immoderate violence. But if the code and tenor of Trump’s rally successful Arizona is immoderate guide, the erstwhile president is poised to wounded a batch of radical earlier helium vanishes from the nationalist eye.