'Nativist' Trump has no plans to give up his 'poster villain' conspiracy theory: Columnist

A New York Times columnist remarked Wednesday evening that former President Donald Trump and his running mate have no plans to give up their "fear-driven" arguments, as they've found "longer-term utility in keeping this narrative going" — and they align with Trump's "nativist aspirations."

Charles Blow noted it's been over a week since Trump amplified at the debate the baseless and racist conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Trump then doubled down on Friday and said he's "angry" that Haitian migrants are "taking over" the city, and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) said Sunday he was fine with creating stories so "that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people."

The tactic, remarked Blow, is important to the election — and "it’s not simply the usual race baiting aimed at charging up part of his base."

Trump has tried and failed to land attacks on his Democratic opponent that will stick. Not so with the Ohio city.

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"But with Springfield, he has found a fear-driven argument that places the issue of immigration right into the town square of a Midwestern city in one of the most electorally important states, and it looks like he and Vance see this as a more potent argument than just talking about the Southern border: There’s reason to believe that they’re trying to stoke public anger and garner public support around immigration policies that Trump promoted in his first term and that he presumably hopes to act on in a second," said Blow.

Blow added that Trump needed Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” or George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton. While he's railed for years that immigrants are flooding into the country, leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in their wake and padding Democratic voter rolls, "that didn’t quite produce the poster villain that would perfectly focus public sentiment."

"The mythos of Black savagery remains so imprinted on the American psyche that many Americans are quick to believe it, even without evidence," lamented Blow. "And so Trump has again turned to it; it seems clear that his attack on Haitian immigrants, who are of African descent, is in part an attempt to link broader anti-immigrant sentiment with anti-Black sentiment."

The recent theory, he said, goes "hand in hand" with Trump's previous sentiments that Haiti is a “s---hole" as well as what Blow called Trump's "nativist aspirations."

"At its core, this canard should be seen as part of a crusade to build support for not only closing the door to immigrants, but for throwing them out of the country," said Blow.