Trump, GOP fuel conspiracy theories: Eating pets, a rigged debate, and QAnon
Donald Trump latched onto a new false claim before a prime-time debate audience of 67 million people: Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating people’s pets. He defended his inaccurate assertions that he won the 2020 election and that Kamala Harris misrepresented her racial identity. The next day he went to memorials for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer — who last year shared a video declaring the assault an “inside job” and more recently helped spread baseless allegations that Harris got forbidden debate tips through high-tech pearl earrings.
By the end of the week, with some of his allies squirming, Trump was pushing the idea, too.
“I hear she got the questions,” Trump of Harris at his Friday night rally in Las Vegas, suggesting his opponent had the debate topics in advance. “And I also hear she had something in the ear, a little something in the ear. ‘No Kamala, do this — say it this way Kamala.’”
Led by Trump, Republicans have increasingly embraced groundless allegations that were once relegated to the political fringes, ensuring they are part of the party’s message to voters in the final, critical months of this year’s election. Their approach has been on vivid display lately, from the debate stage in Philadelphia to other high-profile public appearances to social media — where false information has spread quickly and Trump has been posting a stream of artificial intelligence-generated images of himself with pets supposedly under threat. In the process, they have perpetuated pernicious stereotypes about immigrants and others that critics have called dangerous.
More than a decade after launching his political career with the baseless allegations that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, the former president and his allies continue to spout meritless tales that find a wide audience on the right, despite renewed objections from conservatives who call it unproductive.
Even some of Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress were aghast at Loomer’s appearances with Trump, with Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, saying he hopes “this problem gets resolved.” Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, on Friday called Loomer a “crazy conspiracy theorist” and declared that a “DNC plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning reelection.”
“Enough,” he pleaded.
Trump defended Loomer at a Friday news conference. Hours later, he wrote in a post on Truth Social: “I disagree with the statements she made but, like the many millions of people who support me, she is tired of watching the Radical Left Marxists and Fascists violently attack and smear me.”
Even as some Republicans suggested that Trump instead focus his attention on substantively discussing matters where the party has a clear political advantage, many GOP leaders dodged questions about the Haitian immigrant claims, and a few prominent Republicans placed the blame on Trump and his history of pushing false, fringe notions into the mainstream.
“If you’re on the ballot this fall, you have to be nervous about this type of distraction,” said former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump in the 2024 primaries. He said outlandish claims such as the viral, debunked rumor about pet-eating Haitians “undermine the substance” of the issue Republicans want to press — in this case, immigration.
“Conspiracy theories have been around a long time,” he said. “But the difference is that you have leaders embracing conspiracy theories rather than responding with the truth.”
David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who now supports Harris, said the claims’ quick spread on the right reflects “the currency of the anti-immigrant movement in this country.”
“How did we get to Haitians eating dogs? It’s all rooted in that,” he said. “It’s a simple reflection of where their politics are.”
With polls showing Trump holding a clear advantage on immigration, some Republicans have suggested that there are numerous other, more effective avenues for raising the issue. “There are plenty of things to talk about, including the overwhelming impact that some communities are having on their community services. That impact is undeniable. Other things are a distraction,” said former Republican senator Roy Blunt of Missouri.
The former president also recently shared posts with explicit nods to QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that has gained particular traction among his supporters and casts Trump as a savior fighting shadowy forces, often Democrats or societal elites, who sex-traffic children. The crowds at Trump rallies are dotted with Q references: A “We the Q People” T-shirt, a license plate with the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA.
Although conspiracy theories and false statements have long been present in campaigns, Trump’s candidacy for president ushered in an era defined by powerful political myths that bound him to his followers, experts say.
“Politicians who want greater control over the electorate need to get their followers on board and they can do that by getting them to deny what they see with their own eyes,” said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology who studies the rise and fall of constitutional governments at Princeton. “How do they do that? They tell people what to believe and then they attack the institutions that would normally be a source of truthful information.”
