How a false Ohio pet rumor and Laura Loomer’s presence helped derail Trump’s planned attacks on Harris

() – Donald Trump wanted to spend this week attacking one of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’ biggest political vulnerabilities. Instead, he spent most of the week falsely claiming that migrants are eating pets in a small Ohio town and defending his embrace of a far-right agitator whose presence is causing concern among his allies.

Trump’s repetition of unfounded rumors on social media about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating pets dominated headlines during a trip west that included stops in Arizona and Nevada later this week. The promotion of the claims overshadowed a series of speeches targeting the economy and blaming Harris for border security failures.

Trump, at a news conference in California on Friday, promised “major deportations” from Springfield, Ohio — the city that has become a political flashpoint as Republicans, including Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, spread false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets.

The city of Springfield notes on its website that approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Clark County, and that Haitian immigrants are there legally as part of a parole program that allows citizens and legal residents to petition for their relatives from Haiti to come to the United States.

He also referred to a Venezuelan gang in Aurora, Colorado. Using continued dehumanizing language to describe undocumented immigrants, Trump said that “nests of bad people” are being emptied in the United States.

“It’s like an invasion from within and we’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country. And we’re going to start in Springfield and Aurora,” Trump said.

“The people of Ohio are scared,” he said. “It’s going to get worse. It’s going to get very bad. You know what we’re experiencing right now is that they’re just getting settled.”

Republicans broadly believe immigration and border security are a top political issue for the party, and that they can use it to hit Harris, whom they have labeled President Joe Biden’s “border czarina.”

That label comes after Biden asked the vice president in 2021 to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to address the conditions that led their citizens to try to emigrate to the United States.

But during Tuesday’s debate, Trump’s attacks on Harris over immigration veered into the outrageous, falsely claiming that migrants are eating dogs and cats in Springfield.

Trump’s remarks were met with harsh condemnation from Biden.

“It’s just wrong. And it has no place in America. This has to stop — what he’s doing — it has to stop,” Biden said during a Black Excellence luncheon at the White House on Friday.

Springfield City Hall was forced to close Thursday due to a bomb threat. Two elementary schools were evacuated Friday in Springfield “based on information received from the Springfield Police Division,” the Springfield City School District announced.

Springfield Mayor Rob Rue on Thursday night urged national candidates — in a clear reference to Trump and Vance — to “pay attention to what their words are doing to cities like ours.”

“We need help, not hate,” Rue said.

Trump dismissed those concerns on Friday.

“No, no. The real threat is what is happening at our border,” he said.

Even Pope Francis harshly criticized Trump on Friday for his position on immigration, while attacking Harris for her support for abortion rights.

“To push migrants away, to leave them wherever you want, to abandon them… is a terrible thing, there is evil there. To expel a child from the mother’s womb is murder, because there is life. We must speak clearly about these things,” said the Pope.

Vance, Trump’s running mate, argued that Trump’s comments sparked the conversation about immigration – even as he acknowledged in X the flimsiness of the rumors that sparked the story.

On Tuesday, Vance posted: “It is possible, of course, that all of these rumors turn out to be false.” But the veracity of the claims did not seem to be his main concern.

“Don’t let the biased media shame you into not talking about this slowly unfolding humanitarian crisis in a small town in Ohio. We should be talking about it every day. Kamala Harris did it. And she will continue to do so unless we stop her,” X posted on Friday.

The allegations about pets and animals being eaten in Ohio weren’t the only eyebrow-raising moment this week that put the spotlight on the former president’s campaign.

Trump has spent time with far-right agitator Laura Loomer, who has spread conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and shared racist comments on social media attacking Harris.

Several people close to the former president say Loomer has contributed to some of the unseemly conspiracy theories Trump has floated since Harris replaced Biden on the ticket, a shift that has left the GOP nominee increasingly uneasy about the political landscape he now faces.

Trump on Friday described Loomer as a “free spirit” and “partisan.”

“She’s a strong person. She has strong opinions, and I don’t know what she said, but that’s not up to me. She’s a partisan,” Trump said.

Democratic National Committee rapid response director Alex Floyd on Friday highlighted Trump’s relationship with Loomer and other controversial allies. He said those around Trump are “as professional as you would expect from a convicted felon.”

Trump and Harris returned to the campaign trail later this week after a debate Tuesday night that 63% of viewers said Harris won to Trump’s 37%, according to a poll of debate viewers conducted by SSRS.

The former president’s trip west came as Harris was campaigning in Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground in the 2024 election, with 19 electoral college votes at stake.

Combined, the state has already seen $175 million spent on television ads — more than $93 million by Democrats and more than $81 million by Republicans, according to AdImpact data. Another $136 million, of which nearly $77 million is for Democrats and $59 million for Republicans, has been set aside between Saturday and Election Day. That’s more than has been spent, or set aside, in any other state.

Harris needs a strong showing in Democratic strongholds like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but also to minimize Trump’s margins in the state’s red zones. Her visit on Friday focused on two counties that Trump won during his two campaigns for the White House: Cambria and Luzerne.

“Ultimately, I firmly believe that we have to earn every vote and that means spending time with people in the community where they live. That’s why I’m here. We’re going to be spending a lot more time in Pennsylvania,” Harris told reporters at a Johnstown bookstore on Friday.

‘s Kit Maher, Betsy Klein, Ebony Davis and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.