Over the past four years, there has been a drastic rise in misinformation and fake news in politics. Most of it has come from Donald Trump following his loss in the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. One of the most well-circulated lies was that the election had been stolen from him and given to Biden. During the debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10, he also continued to say that he was not responsible for what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Much like his stance in the 2016 election, Trump is focusing again on America’s southern border. In 2016, he was known to be in favor of building a wall on the southern border to help keep undocumented immigrants out. Now, he is using false narratives to continue pushing the agenda that undocumented immigrants are all violent criminals.
A couple of weeks ago, a story spread around on social media that a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA), had taken over an apartment building in Aurora, Colo. This narrative was circulated along with a video of armed men breaking through the front door of an apartment. Social media posts have stated that the TdA is running the apartment complex and having the tenants pay rent to the members. Because of these allegations, Aurora police officers went to the building to validate the claims. After speaking directly with the tenants, they found out that there was no gang holding the residents captive. In an X post, the City of Aurora, Colo.’s account did confirm that there “is a small Tren De Aragua presence in Aurora.” While they did admit that the TdA was active in the city, the post went on to say that “Aurora is a safe place to live, work and visit. It is tragic that select individuals and entities have mischaracterized our city based on isolated incidents.” It can be inferred that one of the “select individuals” that they were referring to is Trump. Just as recently as the debate, Trump could be heard saying this about the situation, “Look at Aurora, in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently.” Obviously, he is referring to the narrative of the TdA going in and taking over the apartment building, which had already been disproven.
In another example, there have been people claiming that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. This story apparently started on Twitter, where a post claimed that a person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw a cat hanging from a tree “like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat.” This post also showed a Black man carrying what looked to be a Canadian goose by its feet. This post garnered thousands of likes and has almost five million views in less than a week. Due to this story going mainstream, city officials once again came forward to give more information on this rumor. Springfield city manager Bryan Heck stated that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” Like the last story, Trump brought this up as a talking point during the presidential debate. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.” The debate moderators fact-checked Trump in real time and stated that there had been no reports of pets getting stolen or eaten, but Trump doubled down, saying that “the people on television said my dog was taken and used for food.” Without giving a true source, he has provided no good evidence to back up his claims.
While these are not the only false claims that Trump has spread, they both serve as recent examples of him spreading “fake news,” to use his words. He mentioned both incidents during the debate, which it is estimated that over 67 million people watched. Because so many people tuned in to this debate, it is important for the misinformation to be cleared up so voters can know what is happening in the country and make informed decisions come voting time.
Geoff Soland is a fourth-year History major with minors in Journalism and Museum Studies. GS1003383@wcupa.edu