During his debate with Kamala Harris on 10 September, Donald Trump proffered the outrageous lie that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating residents' pets. He wasn't alone in promoting this little bigoted nugget, either. Earlier that day on X, formerly known as Twitter, JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice-president, had already pushed the idea that Springfield's residents "have had their pets abducted and eaten" by "Haitian illegal immigrants".
Vance subsequently tripled down on the falsehood, even later admitting to CNN: "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do." Behold, the political lie. We're not talking about spin, which bends the truth to something usable.
We're dealing with an outright fabrication. None of what Trump and Vance are saying about the Haitian community is true. Not a single bit of it.
The Haitian community of Springfield is there because its members have been granted temporary protected status, a US government program that allows them to live and work legally in the United States for a defined period of time. And none of them have been known to eat your pets. But there is something almost refreshing in Vance's moment of honesty about his own dishonesty.
In an era where cynicism prevails, it feels almost naive to believe in something, and Vance and Trump are showing us they do believe! But what they believe in is the power of spreading the most shocking, contemptible and brazen lies possible to secure their political victory. What's a little lie, after all, if it helps their cause? Or, as Vance put it on X: "don't let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.
" The luxury of the political lie, however, is that the tellers of the lie never have to live directly with the consequences of their actions. But others do. On 12 September, Springfield's city hall was.
.. Moustafa Bayoumi.
