Trump's false attack on Haitians is a racist 'Pizzagate'

Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, Ted Cruz and the entire Republican Party launched an ugly new racist strategy this week.

Here's an explanation of their latest false and inflammatory conspiracy theory, which targets the Haitian migrant community in Ohio. Presented here in a Truth Sandwich format:

Trump and Republicans are spreading false and racist rumors about Haitian immigrants.
These false rumors – alleging that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating the cats of their neighbors in Ohio – are entirely made up. News sources report that the rumor started with a viral social media post. Officials in Ohio say the claims are 100% false.
Despite the fact that this conspiracy theory has been debunked, Trump and his allies are making a full-on effort to spread it. That's because this anti-Haitian conspiracy theory is part of a strategy to inflame racial hatred and fear of immigrants during the 2024 election.

'Unhumans': Roots of the Anti-Haitian Strategy

Trump's attacks on the Haitian community appeared to come out of nowhere. Suddenly, he and X-Twitter owner Elon Musk were tweeting non-stop attacks on Haitian immigrants. But there may be a method to this madness. It's part of an ongoing effort by Republicans to demonize immigrant communities and terrorize white voters into supporting Trump.

Last month, I wrote about "Unhumans," a book by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec (with an enthusiastic promotional blurb by J.D. Vance, Trump's nominee for vice president, who wrote: “In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags. Today, they march through H.R., college campuses and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people.Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.”)

. The book depicts Democratic voters as demon-possessed monsters on a mission to massacre everyone else in society. Here's an excerpt of what I wrote about the book:

Unhumans is not a scholarly work. It is a twisted political incantation designed to inspire hatred and terror. It seeks to influence weak minds by framing the political stakes in horrifying and violent terms. It grooms Republicans for civil war and, quite possibly, something far worse.

The book roots its thesis in the language of genocide. It strips its targets of their humanity, framing them as evil monsters with an unquenchable thirst for murder and mayhem. The supposed motivation for this alleged villainy is never clearly stated. Apparently, it stems from a basic desire to create widespread unhappiness. The possibility of demonic possession is also raised.

That last line, about "demonic possession," is important. The authors go out of their way to dehumanize Democrats. One way they do this is by suggesting that Democratic beliefs stem from occult practices. They drive home this point by talking about Haiti.

Though the book focuses mostly on communist revolutions, it includes a section on the Haitian Revolution, a slave revolt. I thought this seemed like an odd thing to include at the time, but I didn't pay it much mind. Here's what I wrote about Haiti in my review:

[The book] summarizes bloody revolutions of the past – the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, China’s Communist revolutions, etc. Simultaneously, it builds a false equation: Communists = liberals/progressives.

The book is one long, drawn-out syllogism: Communists talked about creating equality and improving society. Communists were bloodthirsty killers. Liberals talk about creating equality and improving society. Therefore, liberals/progressives are bloodthirsty communist killers. The authors drive home the point by repeating one short phrase: “This is what they do.”

After seeing Trump, Musk and Vance make this concerted attack on Haitians, I went back an re-read the Haiti section in "Unhumans." Here is a section that I had highlighted in the book:

Large and warrior-like, former slave Dutty Boukman, who had been born in West Africa, kicked off that bloody slave revolt with a ceremony of animal sacrifice that blended Islamic teaching and voodoo practices. Haiti would become synonymous with voodoo occult rituals, and Boukman was a top practitioner who led the rites. To the assembled crowd he passed around a cup of animal blood which everyone drank, and he called out, “The God of the whites pushes them to crime, but he wants us to do good deeds. But the God who is so good orders us to vengeance. He will direct our hands, and give us help. Throw away the image of the God of the whites who thirsts for our tears. Listen to the liberty that speaks in all our hearts.” 12 Then the blood massacres began—including the one that the anonymous eyewitness related to us. Most weren’t so fortunate. Men, women, and so many screaming children, it didn’t matter. If you were French, you were hacked to death.

This section helped me understand the overall goal of the book, which was to depict all Democratic voters as they depicted Dutty Boukman, which is bizarre enough. But remember: Jack Posobiec was one of the main spreaders of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed that a pizza parlor in Washington D.C. was a hub of Satanic sex abuse ring. Despite the conspiracy theory being entirely false, a deranged man eventually shot up the place.

Just as with Pizzagate, this anti-Haitian racist hate story is a completely false narrative designed to terrify people and go viral in the media. And in this case, it is being spread by people with enormous reach: Trump, Musk and Vance. They know it's false and harmful, they're spreading it anyway.

Animal 'sacrifice' terror tactic

In Unhumans," animal sacrifice is depicted as a precursor to large scale massacres of white people by people of color. Further, Posobiec asserts that large scale massacres are the main goal of Democrats (whom the book equates to "communists," or "unhumans").

Any MAGA voter who reads the book will get this message. Such readers will likely see these false rumors about animals being killed by dark-skinned immigrants as evidence that the book's twisted prophecy – which asserts that Democrats are planning massacres – is coming true.

Next Phase: Connecting it to Kamala

And there's another element that will probably come into play soon: Kamala Harris has Jamaican heritage. Haiti and Jamaica are neighboring islands in the Caribbean.

I believe Trump's decision to target Haitians is absolutely directed at Kamala Harris's cultural and racial identity. I doubt it will be long before they start spreading false rumors that Harris herself is engaging in animal sacrifices. They must find a way to connect her to the conspiracy theory, and her Caribbean roots are the simplest way to do that.

Whether or not Republicans deliberately created this false narrative, their decision to boost it tells us a lot. A key part of their strategy in 2024 will be to depict non-white voters as bloodthirsty subhumans who pose a threat to white Americans – a strategy taken straight from the pages of "Unhumans."

Their Frame (Racism/Lies): Immigrants and people of color are dangerous primitives who threaten white communities.

Their Strategy: Spread false rumors about the behavior, culture, religion and culinary habits of immigrants and people of color. Create and distribute lurid and shocking narratives designed for maximum effect. Keep Democrats/media/voters busy with debunking falsehood.

The Counter: Pivot to exposing the racist frame, putting Republicans on the defensive. Avoid dwelling on specific details of false allegations, which only helps to spread them.

Note: This piece has been corrected to clarify that J.D. Vance wrote a promotion blurb for the book, rather than the foreword. The foreword was written by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

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