J.D. Vance invited the internet Tuesday to “keep the cat memes flowing,” hoping to spread cartoonishly racist rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio had begun eating house pets (which even he acknowledged were probably untrue).
Donald Trump would later go on television that night and make an impassioned—and entirely nonsensical—plea to the American people to buy into the xenophobic smears.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in! They’re eating the cats! They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people who live there,” Trump cried, while Kamala Harris laughed at him.
Ultimately, there is little humor to be found in a presidential candidate spreading extremist right-wing lies that have already made targets of a group of extremely vulnerable people.
Still, Trump’s mindless parroting of these lies did lead to an onslaught of memes, but not the lame A.I.-generated ones that Vance had hoped for. On X, a veritable tidal wave of memes have emerged nailing Trump for just how stupid he sounded.
While many right-wing pundits are blaming ABC moderators for undermining Trump during the presidential debate, The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins pointed out in a post on X that Trump could do bad all by himself.
Comedian Kylie Brakeman wrote that Trump had originally made the outlandish claim in response to Harris’s claim that he was too outlandish.
At home across America, viewers of all species were disturbed by the president’s empathic delivery of patently unsubstantiated claims.
THEY'RE EATING THE DOGS pic.twitter.com/lQqMW5l8pT
— Tarquin ???????? (@Tarquin_Helmet) September 11, 2024
But some could acknowledge that maybe there was something different about Trump’s cadence as he unloaded his total garbage—maybe even musical?
A key point missing in a lot of post debate analysis is that Trump’s claim about immigrants eating pets almost perfectly syncs up to the piano in the Peanuts theme song. pic.twitter.com/6icWLe1sPN
— Noah Garfinkel (@NoahGarfinkel) September 11, 2024
I better go superviral for this... pic.twitter.com/00Laf5QUrx
— Fearghas Kelly (@FearghasKelly) September 11, 2024
There were actually a lot of Simpsons references, for some reason.
Most regrettably, some X users quickly moved to verify Trump’s claims. What they found was beyond disturbing.
At the bottom of this internet spiral, there are two simple truths. One, combating the lies of Trump and Vance requires facts, such as the official statements of local officials who insist that there are “no credible reports” to back up the Republican presidential ticket’s fantastical claims of migrants digging in on house pets.
And another point, that countering Trump’s blatant extremism requires an acknowledgment of just how ridiculous he has become.
