Cats, dogs and Trump: Have conspiracy theories taken over US politics?

By Michael Baggs (with Jon Sopel & Lewis Goodall)

Donald Trump has “normalised” conspiracy theories in US politics, but does their popularity tell us something serious about the state of society?

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Donald Trump’s comments about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, have gone viral following the presidential debate with Kamala Harris.
• But this, an expert tells The News Agents, may have been exactly what he wanted.
• Many people believe in conspiracy theories because they feel like there is something “rotten” in society, and that it has failed them.

What’s the story?

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets."

Even if you didn't watch any of the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris debate on 10 September, you've probably heard the quote and seen the memes.

Trump claimed Haitian people had been eating animals in Springfield, Ohio during the debate. His presidential running-mate JD Vance has also shared the same allegations online.

It was shut down by the ABC moderator during the debate, and the city council of Springfield has denied any of these claims ever happened. It is simply a conspiracy theory being used to demonise immigrants in America.

And despite Donald Trump being almost universally mocked for his comments, the attention it's drawn is almost exactly what he wanted from the debate.

"Everyone's talking about the cats and dogs now," author and journalist Gabriel Gatehouse tells The News Agents.

"On the MAGA end of the political spectrum, they're saying it's a mainstream media cover up."

Conspiracy theories and US politics is not a new thing, says Lewis Goodall, but it did become "normalised" under Trump.

"The politics of conspiracy has always been central to Donald Trump," he says. "It's always been central to MAGA."

"It's always been there in American politics in one form or another, but in recent years, it has been getting worse and has been taking more and more people in."

How will Donald Trump be feeling after the Kamala Harris debate?

Why is Trump sharing conspiracy theories?

Jon Sopel questions, eloquently, whether Trump's love for disinformation is "deliberate" or simply a "brain-fart"?

Gatehouse says it's both.

"I'm not sure those two things are that different," he replies. "I think Donald Trump is a politician with a killer instinct.

"He understands what narratives, what stories, are going to help him, what is going to go viral, what is going to get the engagement.

In his new book, The Coming Storm, which is about conspiracy theories in US politics, Gatehouse spoke with an “internet troll” who told him “Conflict is attention and attention is power.”

“Donald Trump understands that,” he adds.

“He lives and breathes that, and that is why he is so successful."

Donald Trump’s favourite conspiracy theories

Haitian people eating pets is just the latest in Trump's long history of sharing and supporting conspiracy theories.

In the same debate, he also claimed Harris wanted to "do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison." This came just days after he said children were being given gender-affirming surgery by teachers in school.

But these really are the tip of the deep, dark and deeply untrue iceberg.

Some of his most-repeated conspiracy theories include Barack Obama not being born in the US (he was), the 'Pizzagate' theory that Bill and Hillary Clinton are paedophiles (they're not), claims China invented global warming (it didn't), wind turbines causing cancer (they don't), and of course, that he won the 2020 election (he did not)

Many of his Republican colleagues are big fans of conspiracy theories too. Just ask Marjorie Taylor-Greene – although don’t ask her about Jewish space lasers, or she will tell you to fuck off.

US Politician Marjorie Taylor Greene tells The News Agent's Emily Maitlis to f*** off

What can we learn from the popularity of conspiracy theories?

It's easy to laugh at some of the beliefs held by conspiracy theorists, but the fact that so many people believe in them, Gatehouse says, says a lot about the world we live in, and how they feel it has failed them.

"A conspiracy theory doesn't necessarily tell you what the conspiracy theorist wants to tell you, but it tells you something else," he says.

"It tells you something about society.

"The fact that there are so many conspiracy theories that all basically boil down to the idea that the system is rotten at the moment tells you something."

And this may go some way to explaining why conspiracy theories are often embraced by MAGA supporters.

"We've essentially got the Democrats representing the party that wants to conserve the system and the establishment," he adds.

"They want to conserve the system, versus Trump – the avatar for people who think that the system is so rotten because of these conspiracy theories that they want to tear it all down."

Listen in full on The News Agents.

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