This city knows all too well how low Trump will go — and he's about to go yet lower

During the 2024 election, JD Vance and Donald Trump told disgusting, racist lies about Haitians in Springfield and made the southwest Ohio city a national target of hate and extremism.

Pathetic loser neo-Nazis stalked the streets, disrupted community meetings, and protested in front of City Hall. Charity leaders were harassed. Schools closed after being subjected to repeated bomb threats. Business and city leaders were threatened with violence and death.

After telling the racist lies that sparked this hateful chaos in a city of his own constituents, then-Sen. Vance admitted that he would “create stories” to get attention, which is how a child operates.

Now he’s Vice President of the United States.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tried to be the adult in the room.

He took to the New York Times to shoot down the lies and support the actual community — as opposed to the hate-filled fantasy portrayed by the amoral sociopaths in the right-wing media echo-chamber.

DeWine was born in Springfield.

DeWine and his wife Fran also have deep connections to Haiti, founding a school there named after their late daughter, who they tragically lost in a car accident in 1993.

Amid gang violence in 2024, the Becky DeWine School had to close down.

That current, brutal spat of gang violence stems out of a history of genocide, colonization and slavery, revolution, extortion and impoverishment, and subsequent dictatorship, instability, and violence.

I know the story of one Haitian refugee who escaped the violence there and has been in the U.S. for years under protected status.

Working multiple jobs and living modestly to save as much as possible, she had a home built for herself back in Haiti to eventually move back.

She furnished it and everything, getting it ready: a new couch, a new fridge, a comfy bed.

About two months ago, gangs broke into the home, robbed everything from it, and left it in ruins.

She now has no home to return to, just a pile of rubble.

“Self-deport,” they say: self-deport to violence and disaster.

“Illegal,” they say, as they strip them of their legal status.

During Trump’s first term, he tried to end Temporary Protected Status for refugees from Haiti in 2018 and referred to Haiti and African nations as “s---hole” countries. Courts blocked him.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has now once again set a date to end protected status for Haitian refugees in the U.S., on Feb. 3.

A lawsuit against the order is before an appellate court of federal judges, but no decision has yet been given. A ruling is expected Feb. 2.

Springfield is on edge.

Look for the helpers.

The helpers at the local level are doing everything they can. They’re exhausted. They’re scared.

It’s an absolute disgrace that America has sunk so low. The community has done everything they can.

Now it’s time for Ohio’s elected leaders to do everything they can to help: Make phone calls, back-channel, use whatever influence possible to do everything possible to keep Ohio safe and peaceful.

Springfield, Ohio does not need a vengeance tour of appalling, illegal, unconstitutional, propaganda porn for right-wing internet losers from a sadistic regime.

DeWine has been public about the economic storm that would hit Springfield if the city that has spent years successfully expanding and adjusting to this hard-working, faithful community is suddenly upended by the mass deportation of 10,000 residents.

Factories will be hobbled, jobs will go unfilled, local businesses will close down, city and county revenues will plummet, churches will once again have empty pews, and neighborhoods that had been revitalized will fall again into shambles.

Meanwhile, all those horrific scenes playing out in Minnesota will come to this small Ohio town.

Open abuse of police powers violating the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Violence, hatred, chaos. A maelstrom of madness, based on the lawless whims and childish fantasies of under-trained, under-vetted, unaccountable goon squads.

This the doing of “public leaders” who are mental, intellectual, and emotional toddlers — broken people breaking the world.

They’re too weak and stupid, short-sighted and malicious to have any positive vision for humanity, so they spew forth darkness, resentment, paranoia, division, and hate.

In stark display of their sickness of soul, they delight in the pain and hurt they torment upon others.

They reject the light of truth, compassion, mercy, restraint, benevolence, tolerance, and love. They insult God.

It’s well past time for all adults remaining among Ohio’s so-called leaders to stand up to these children.

It’s time to protect the law — actual, constitutional law. It’s time to protect order. It’s time to protect Ohio’s peace. It’s time for a shred of decency.

• Ohio Capital Journal Editor-in-Chief and Opinion Columnist David DeWitt has been covering government, politics, and policy in Ohio since 2007, including education, health care, crime and the courts, poverty, state and local government, business, labor, energy, the environment, and social issues. He has worked for the National Journal, The New York Observer, and The Athens NEWS. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and is a board member of the E.W. Scripps Society of Alumni and Friends. Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.