Trump's Racist Lies About Haitians Eating Dogs Is Just The Beginning

When Republicans start to lose an election, they revert to virulent racism.

Donald Trump and Laura Loomer. Image via Instagram

by Justin Rosario

And here we are. Trump is making his closing argument to the American people as we head into the final weeks of the election. Naturally, it’s one of the most disgusting and bigoted closing arguments we’ve ever seen. No dog whistle, forgive the expression, or subtlety. Just pure, naked racism.

We knew this election was going to be ugly. Somehow, people still seem shocked by how ugly and I have to wonder why that is. I also wonder if they understand it is going to get far worse before November.

Trump is just getting started.

What, exactly, is happening here?

It’s a long-established pattern that when Republicans start to lose an election, they revert to virulent racism. Where I live in Virginia in 2017, Republican candidate Ed Gillespie tried to tie his opponent, Ralph Northam, to MS-13 gang violence. Glenn Youngkin went all in on anti-Semitism in 2021. All of us remember the endless panic over “migrant caravans.” Republicans trotted that one out a few times. With about seven weeks left to election day, I’ll bet good money the illusionary horror of vast migrant caravans filled with terrorists/drug cartels/Bubonic Plague will chew up a few weeks of coverage. Sometimes slamming the racism button works, but most of the time it does not. They still cannot stop themselves from trying.

The “why” of this latest round of hate speech is easy. Right now, Trump is in more jeopardy than any candidate in American history. A loss here means he will probably spend the rest of his life in prison — especially after he stages the second failed coup Republicans have been openly planning for the last four years. It’s either that or fleeing to Russia where he can claim to be a “president-in-exile”.

Trump can still “win” of course. Republicans have every intent of rigging the election in any way possible. But with each passing day, Trump does worse and Harris does better, making the lift that much harder. As I keep pointing out, stealing an election only works if people think it’s legitimate (or you control the military).

Trump is lagging in the polls, lagging even worse in fundraising, his campaign infrastructure in the swing states is nonexistent, and the campaign itself is riven with infighting. Trump’s catastrophic performance at the debate may have sealed the deal. This is a campaign in free fall and it doesn’t matter how hard Nate Silver lies about it, Trump’s chances of winning are not great and trending the wrong way.

Thus, Trump and the rest of his party of misanthropes are turning to that old Republican standby: jaw dropping racism.

First it was the lie that Haitians were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. Then there was a spike in crime. Now there’s a spike in HIV and other diseases. Don Jr. took a break from snorting lines to push the racism a little further. Haitians are just less intelligent, you see. 

The New York Times explains:

Donald Trump Jr. suggested on Thursday that Haitian immigrants were less intelligent than people from other countries, and claimed that there was demographic evidence to back this up. He provided none.

“You look at Haiti, you look at the demographic makeup, you look at the average I.Q. — if you import the third world into your country, you’re going to become the third world,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Charlie Kirk on Real America’s Voice, a conservative broadcasting network. “That’s just basic. It’s not racist. It’s just fact.”

I promise you, claims that Haitians rape white women and are also pedophiles/cannibals are coming. It’s almost inevitable.

It’s important to understand that Springfield, Ohio put out the call for immigrant workers almost a decade ago. They had thousands of job openings and no one to fill them. Haitians came, filled those positions, fixed up abandoned and boarded-up houses, and started pouring money into the local economy.

This is, quite literally, the American story. This is how we became a nation not bound by stale tradition and ethnic stratification. The promise of America is that anyone from any circumstances can come here and build a life for themselves with no restrictions. 

That is how the ancestors of all of these racist white Republicans became Americans. Now they want to close the door and keep out everyone they deem “lesser.” Worse, they want to purge the United States of everyone they see as unworthy of sharing “their” country.

Here’s the latest development in Ohio:

Yup. The KKK is on the job. So are the Proud Boys who led a march in the city, looking to terrorize any Haitians they could find. Meanwhile, JD Vance, who put the lies about pets being eaten on blast, admits the story is untrue but who cares? We have an election to win and racism is the fuel that drives the GOP.

On top of this powderkeg, Trump threw the Molotov cocktail known as Laura Loomer.

The Loomer Problem

Donald Trump has, at this point, abandoned any and all pretense of trying to convince voters to vote for him for any reason other than white nationalism. He was already doubling down on hate speech before the debate. Now he needs to force the media to talk about him and only him for as long as possible. Any publicity is good publicity, right?

Well, not so much. That theory worked in 2016 when the media gave Trump literally billions in free advertising. But that was when he was new and “exciting.” Now? He’s kind of boring and people don’t care as much. There’s a reason Trump freaked out at the debate when Harris pointed out that his crowds got bored and wandered off. It’s true and Trump knows it.

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The solution is to ramp up the outrage which is where Laura Loomer comes in. Loomer is a professional troll. I’m not going to get into her decade-plus history of being a soulless monster. Suffice to say, she is a white nationalist so devoted to worming her way into Trump’s orbit that at the ripe old age of 31, Loomer has had extensive plastic surgery to better fit the creepy “Mar-a-Lago Template” that Trump seems to prefer in his women. 

Loomer is no doubt prodding Trump to be as extreme as possible. Partly to increase her influence with him but also because this is her bread and butter: stoking racial anxiety among the bigots and imbeciles of the Republican base. This is will be great for Loomer and her brand, to have her words coming out of Trump’s mouth.

It’s not going to be all that good for the rest of the party which is so alarmed that they’re actually complaining out loud about Loomer’s growing presence on the campaign. They understand the danger as clearly as I do. Letting someone as extreme as this become the face of the Republican Party right as early voting is starting is suicide. But Trump only hears the flattery Loomer is pouring into his ear and the hate she’s egging him on to spread. Hate that Trump thinks will appeal to his base.

After all, if he can just whip them into enough of a hysterical frenzy of hate and fear, he can win or they’ll be prepared to riot on his command when he loses, aka “Plan C for Coup.” At least, that’s the calculation.

In reality, Loomer will become a massive embarrassment. She will say and do things that the press will not be able to sanewash. Trump’s rhetoric will become increasingly racist and vile. If we get through the rest of this election without him spitting out racial slurs, it will be a miracle.

But, seriously, we need to understand how much worse this going to get. Trump is scared, unhinged, and now being led by a woman who only cares about raising her personal profile. If Trump wins, great! She’ll be rewarded. Maybe Laura Loomer can be Press Secretary. If Trump loses, big deal! She’ll have pulled in a massive new audience she can grift off of for years. And with a Black woman in the White House, Loomer is guaranteed to rake in money from angry white racists for the next decade and beyond. 

It was already going to get ugly but now with a certified Nazi troll directing Trump? We’re heading for the kind of racism that would have made George Wallace blanche. 

Normally, I would cheer this kind of self-destructive stupidity. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake and all that. Normally. But Trump’s bile has real-world consequences and he is trying very hard to get people killed in Ohio. This is what we are going to have to deal with for the next seven weeks and then even worse after Trump kicks off his second coup.

Forewarned is forearmed and we’re going to need to be ready for far uglier and more dangerous stuff than what’s happening in Springfield. 

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