First stop – the park to find the dog walkers. The first man I met, with his dog, was called Bruce.
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0:31
‘They’re eating pets in Springfield’
“I’ve heard about it…” he told me when I asked if he could verify the Trump claim. “…but I haven’t seen anything really.”
“You’re not worried about your dog?” I asked. “No.”
“You should ask them…” he then said, pointing to a man in a municipal vehicle.
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He didn’t want to be filmed but was happy to chat. He said how the duck and geese numbers had fallen. Maybe they were being eaten he said, or maybe they were just migrating elsewhere.
“What about the pets?” I asked him. And that’s when I got the first hint of how conspiracies are seeded.
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“I’ve never seen nothing going on with the dogs and cats, except what I’ve seen on TikTok with the Springfield police arresting a lady for eating a cat. She was from Haiti wasn’t she,” he said.
Image: Dogs in Springfield, Ohio
The video he’d seen has been doing the rounds for the past week in the conspiracy incubator that is social media.
It is police bodycam footage of a woman being arrested a few weeks ago for allegedly killing and eating a cat.
But she isn’t a Haitian migrant. She was born in America. And the incident didn’t happen in Springfield either. The local police have confirmed all these facts to be true.
Across Springfield we have not found anyone who has seen pet-eating immigrants.
Driving the streets and talking to the residents I can confirm that the dogs seem safe; the cats are roaming loose.
The instinct then maybe to laugh at the peak-Trump nonsense. Indeed, the Haitians of Springfield can see the funny side too.
“The Haitians don’t eat cat and dog. No. It’s not the culture to eat that,” Viteo Lawway, 24, told me, with a laugh.
But within this cat and dog story there are some actual truths. There are huge challenges over immigration in America and they are acute in Springfield.
Viteo Lawway is one of 15,000 to have arrived here in Springfield from war-torn, gang-run Haiti since 2020. The pressures on services and society are obvious.
Springfield is a small place with an existing population of under 60,000.
“How did you feel when you heard Donald Trump’s words?” I asked Casey Rollins the executive director of the St Vincent de Paul centre which helps newly arrived migrants.
“I was physically ill. Still am. I can’t even react. I can’t even repeat it. It’s just unfathomable to me, but that’s what happens when hysteria is spread, you know, and all kinds of fictional narratives and it’s really doing harm to our world.”
We looked at another view from another Springfield resident that’s gone viral online.
The woman in the video, who appears to be addressing a community group, is heard saying: “I feel like we have been invaded by some sort of pest.
“I am angry that my friends and family are packing up and moving away. I am angry that foreigners are using up the resources they were set up for the Americans who reside here.”
The clip went on to allege and amplify the pet-eating migrant story.
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“Every community, every culture has its myth and its folklore. I guess this is one,” Casey said to me in response.
The tensions in the town are clear but they are being fanned.
An accident last year between a car and a school bus in Springfield was caused by a Haitian driver. There is a particular concern that the newly-arrived Haitians do not drive well.
An 11-year-old boy died in the crash. Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has cited the tragedy but has framed it a particular way. The boy, Vance said on X last week, was “murdered by migrants”.
A Trump campaign social media page weighed in too: “REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.”
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0:59
‘Don’t spin my son’s death towards hate’
The boy’s father has hit back.
Nathan Clark told a city commission meeting this week that he wished for “the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone”.
He continued: “My son Aiden Clark was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by a migrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation. But don’t spin this towards hate.”
Baseless, evidence-free, racist conspiracies usually stay deep down rabbit holes where they belong.
But Donald Trump inhabits these rabbit holes. He is led down them by people in his inner circle, like Laura Loomer, a known conspiracy theorist who regularly travels in Mr Trump’s entourage.
Rumours which would usually only exist in small echo chambers precisely because there is no evidence no support them, suddenly get massively amplified when Donald Trump mentions them.
This is a country where too often people no longer believe their own l neighbours, their own instinct or their own eyes. And that applies to both sides in this divided country. That’s the problem.
Its Black Mirror type stuff – a conspiracy about cats and dogs. Fantasy world stuff but with real world consequences.
Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term with a campaign-style rally in Michigan.
During his 90-minute speech the US president mocked Joe Biden, falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election and defended his decision to impose tariffs on countries around the world.
Speaking in front of electronic screens reading “100 days of greatness”, Mr Trump attacked “radical left lunatics”, briefly took on a heckler and boasted about his administration’s “mass deportation” efforts.
“Removing the invaders is not just a campaign pledge,” he said. “It’s my solemn duty as commander-in-chief. I have an obligation to save our country.”
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He played a video of migrants his administration claims are gang members arriving at a notorious prison in El Salvador, with those in the crowd cheering the images of deportees having their heads shaved.
During his speech, during which he called up several of his top team to the stage, Mr Trump claimed his administration has delivered “most profound change in Washington in nearly 100 years”.
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3:04
100 days of Donald Trump
Mr Trump also briefly touched on tariffs, saying China, which is facing tariffs of 145%, “has taken more jobs from us than any country has ever taken from another country”.
Image: Pic: AP
But he said his tariffs did not mean Beijing and Washington cannot “get along” and said he thought a trade deal with China was near, adding: “But it’s going to be a fair deal.”
“I think it’s going to work out,” he says. “They want to make a deal. We’re going to make a deal. But it’s going to be a fair deal.”
Image: Donald Trump speaking in Michigan. Pic: AP
Image: Mr Trump dances at the end of his rally. Pic: Reuters
He claimed his administration had “already ended inflation”, but last month the Bureau of Labor Statistics said while inflation slowed in March over the past year, it had in fact risen 2.4%.
Mr Trump, who has frequently criticised Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell in recent weeks, said: “Interest rates came down, despite the fact that I have a Fed person who’s not really doing a good job, but I won’t say that. I want to be very nice. I want to be very nice and respectful to the Fed.
“You’re not supposed to criticise the Fed. You’re supposed to let him do his own thing. But I know much more than he does about interest rates, believe me.”
Mr Trump also defended his administration’s steep tariffs on cars and car parts, hours after he signed an executive order aimed at easing the impact of his tariffs on US carmakers.
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“We’re here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country,” Mr Trump said.
He later added: “We’ve just gotten started. You haven’t even seen anything yet.”
Getting beyond the West Wing and out of Washington has been harder. The volume of news has necessitated a near-constant presence in the US capital.
Every single day, there has been something. Of course, this has been entirely intentional for the president and his team of proud disrupters.
They pledged to govern differently, and on that promise, they have more than delivered.
To fix America, Donald Trump first had to convince people that it is broken. Many didn’t need convincing. Look for decline here and you’ll easily find it; communities left behind.
Look for bureaucracy and waste – you’ll find that too. Common sense silenced by wokism? Many can relate to that. Immigration out of control? Politicians have been struggling with that for decades.
In just 100 days, Mr Trump has harnessed all of that into a package of change that feels like nothing short of a revolution.
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Despite the tsunami of news, my colleagues and I have managed to escape from the White House. And it is there, beyond Washington, that the more subtle but no less profound changes to the fabric of this nation can be felt.
Whether it be innocuous tattoos that might now be associated with gang membership, free speech opinions penned on social media, or the willingness just to chat about politics, one startling thing I have observed these past 100 days is a growing sense of fear.
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23:32
Does Trump really ‘run the country and the world?’
A passion for politics
Anyone who has worked as a foreign correspondent in America will tell you that Americans love to give their opinion on politics. And they do it, always, with word-perfect articulation. There is no better place in the world for a ‘voxpop’.
There is a passion for politics that I haven’t seen anywhere else I’ve lived and worked. Until now. Over these past 100 days, I have increasingly found a reticence that reflects an America changed by this president and his style.
I’m in Detroit at the moment, in Michigan, the battleground state that helped to deliver Donald Trump the presidency back in November. I was here back then, too, and recall the enthusiasm with which people would discuss the upcoming election. There was enthusiasm for Trump and enthusiasm for Harris.
An indictment of the times
Now the response to my questions is, so often, “no thanks, I’d rather not”. Sometimes people ask where the report will be seen. “Will it be on in America?” Think about it – this is America. What an indictment of the times, that people fear offering their opinion – whatever side of the aisle they sit.
Very often, it’s businesses that are extremely cautious of being associated with one political view or another. Such is the animosity now between the two sides.
After a day of perseverance in Detroit this week, a few folk did talk to us. Their answers were revealing.
In a park, I met Marie Freeman who said people are now “more angry”. Her view is that America has lost something over these past 100 days.
“I definitely want us to move forward in a positive, more empathetic way. I think with Trump being such a hardcore president, we lose the empathy, we lose the grace for our fellow neighbours. We’re all so angry because we’re under angry leadership. And that’s not good.”
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She articulated a vibe which I recognise in so many parts of this country right now. A lack of grace and empathy.
Yet, yards away, a couple walking their cats stopped to chat. I asked how they would rate these past 100 days. Two tens out of ten for Trump’s performance.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral could end up being “historic.” Hours later, Mr Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s appetite for peace in a Truth Social post.
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2:49
From Saturday: Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral
Speaking before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump again said the meeting went well, and that the Ukrainianleader was “calmer”.
“I think he understands the picture, I think he wants to make a deal,” he said, before turning to Mr Putin and Russia.
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” the US president said, adding he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places (including Kyiv, where nine people were killed in a Russian airstrike on Friday) after discussions”.
However, Mr Trump said he thinks Mr Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea, which the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said he would refuse to do.
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He added that “we’ll see what happens in the next few days” and said “don’t talk to me about Crimea, talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea”.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that a peace deal to end the war was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there”.
“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” he added on the Meet the Press show.
It comes after North Korea confirmed it had deployed troops to fight for Russia, months after Ukraine and Western officials said its forces were in Europe.
State media outlet KCNA reported North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to expelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, likely to be the Kursk region.
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KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un made the decision to deploy troops to Russia and notified Moscow, and quoted him as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”
It also quoted the country’s ruling Workers’ Party as saying the end of the battle to liberate Kursk showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia.
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1:26
From June 2024: Putin drives Kim around in luxury limo during state visit
The North Korean leader promised at the time “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine”.