Ohio Republican Leaders Gently Beg Trump To Please Not Visit Springfield

Republican officials in Ohio are politely pleading with the Trump campaign to not visit Springfield after it spent weeks stoking false claims about Haitian immigrants eating residents’ pets, plunging the city into chaos.

City and state officials have been calling the conspiracy theories out since before Donald Trump brought the manufactured hysteria to the national stage by declaring “they’re eating the dogs!” during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last week.

Both Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and the Republican mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, are now attempting to gently, publicly dissuade Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) — who are both responsible for the racist conspiracy theories gaining national attention — from making a campaign stop in the city.

“It would be an extreme strain on our resources,” Rue told reporters Tuesday, according to NBC News.

DeWine, who has, for his part, called the false claims “garbage,” visited Springfield on Tuesday to offer support as the city is inundated with threats and bomb scares, forcing evacuations of elementary schools, colleges, city hall buildings and cancelations of classes and community events. DeWine also tried to discourage a Trump campaign visit — which NBC News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, is under consideration, though the campaign has not yet publicly committed to it. DeWine on Tuesday acknowledged that normally a visit from a presidential candidate’s campaign would be, “generally, very, very welcomed,” but he lamented that, in this case, it would be a drain on city resources.

“I have to state the reality, though, that resources are really, really stretched here,” he said.

He took his apparent discontent with the Trump campaign demonizing immigrants in Springfield a step further at another point on Tuesday when NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo asked DeWine to give Trump and Vance some advice “about what to do with these allegations about eating pets in Springfield that they keep repeating.”

Though he also, of course, knocked President Joe Biden for having “failed” on the border, DeWine was direct about the impact of the Trumpian conspiracy theories on his constituents.

“They’re very hurtful. It’s very hurtful to people,” DeWine told Cuomo. “It’s hurtful to the people in Springfield, hurtful to the Haitians who are working every day.”