For Trump, the combination of bad debate and Swift support was politically like losing a prize fight, then leaving the arena and dropping a piano on his head.
Trump fuels false rumors about pet killings in Springfield, Ohio
Former President Donald J. Trump recently spread false rumors that Haitian migrants were kidnapping, killing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
In politics, it’s always good to rely on completely disingenuous claims that dehumanize an entire segment of the population while one of your key surrogates mocks a hugely popular pop star with a creepy comment that sounds like the kind of thing a sexist divorced dad would hit on a younger woman.
Is that true? Okay, maybe that’s not true. That sounds like a bad political maneuver.
But that’s exactly what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign has been doing since he stumbled off the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night after being soundly defeated by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Republicans are repeating Trump’s grotesque lie that immigrants eat people’s pets while watching billionaire and Trump superfan Elon Musk foolishly try to get the attention of Taylor Swift.
Harris’s much-praised performance was followed by a message of support from Swift, one of America’s most influential figures: “I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes that I believe need a fighter to represent them.” She signed it, “Childless cat lady,” a gentle middle finger to the past misogynistic comments of Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.
Things were going badly for Trump, then Musk came along and made things worse
For Trump, the combination of a bad debate and Swift’s endorsement was politically equivalent to losing a prizefight and then leaving the arena, dropping a piano on his head.
So Trump billionaire supporter Elon Musk rushed to the rescue, posting on the massive social media platform he owns: “Good, Taylor… you won… I will give you a child and protect your cats with my life.”
Yuck. I speak for many Americans when I say, “Dude, what the hell? That’s fucking creepy.”
Musk is 53 and Swift is 34, and while I’m sure his weird lizard and brain thought this was a funny joke, it certainly wasn’t.
Does Swift’s support matter? Taylor Swift is endorsing Kamala Harris. This is a big deal, even if you don’t believe it.
Swift’s support was calm and friendly, unlike anything Trump does
Swift posted a thoughtful endorsement, showing respect for those who disagree and encouraging people to educate themselves on the candidates and make their own decisions. Musk responded with the equivalent of, “HAH HAH I’LL PUT YOU A BABY IF YOU WANT, STUPID CAT LADY!!”
Musk’s rude post is emblematic of the toilet bowl that the Trump campaign is currently circling. (Correction: The campaign has already circled the bowl, walked through the sewers, and is now in the sludge pit outside the treatment plant.)
Lies about eating pets show Trump’s campaign is beyond weird
In the days leading up to the debate, Trump and company had spread the grotesque and extremely xenophobic lie that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets. That lie was based on nothing more than racist fever dreams of the right. Officials in the Ohio city at the center of some of those lies have made that perfectly clear.
Yet Vance, Musk, and Trump himself posted defamatory memes with the sole intention of marginalizing an innocent immigrant community and scaring white people into believing something stupid.
Do the Republicans want that? Trump is going nuts in the debate with Harris. Republicans, are you sure you want this guy?
And then, during the debate, when we knew full well that Trump’s advisers just wanted him to act somewhat normal, Trump brought up the damn pet food nonsense.
“They eat the dogs, the people who came here. They eat the cats. They eat the pets of the people who live there,” he yelled like an elderly relative who you wish would stop coming to family dinners.
Trump and Vance must stop pushing “pet food”
It was hard to believe. A candidate was ranting at a presidential debate about something that was completely made up and, worse, a dehumanizing hoax that would appear on page 1 of How to Be a Racist.
But there was Trump. And after the debate, in the media spin room, his running mate persisted with the offensive nonsense, telling CNN: “First of all, the city officials didn’t say it wasn’t true. They said they didn’t have all the evidence. No evidence.”
Sure, Jan. No evidence. A clear sign that something you made up definitely happened.
None of this is a sign of a successful campaign – on the contrary
If you insist that dogs and cats are eaten by people who opportunistically want to disparage you, you’ve lost. Period. Nobody believes that nonsense. It just forces hard-working American writers like me to waste time looking up synonyms for “weird” and “horrible.” (Found some! How about “freaky” and “disgusting”?)
I can’t imagine what the Trump campaign will do after the “THEY EAT OUR DOGS!” statements and Musk’s utter insult to one of the most popular women in the world.
But hey, the week is still young. And they have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on their team. I’m sure they’ll find a way down.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
