“I’m going to go there in the next two weeks. I’m going to Springfield, and I’m going to Aurora” in Colorado, Trump said at the New York rally on Sept. 18.
Springfield and Aurora have been flashpoints in the nation’s immigration debate. When baseless social media claims went viral that Haitians in Springfield were eating people’s pets, Trump amplified them repeatedly, claiming they were true.
Trump’s original announcement of a visit drew mixed reaction from local Republican leaders. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he would welcome a visit from the Republican presidential candidate, while Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said a visit would tax the city’s safety resources, which had been stretched thin by frequent bomb threats.
“As a visit from the former president will undoubtedly place additional demands on our safety infrastructure, should he choose to change his plans, it would convey a significant message of peace to the city of Springfield,” Rue said at the time.
While talking about Springfield two weeks ago, Trump said that it had previously been a beautiful town with “no crime” but that “32,000 illegal immigrants” had arrived “in a period of a few weeks.”
Neither the number of immigrants, the timeframe of their arrival, their legal/illegal status, nor Springfield’s crime history in Trump’s statement were true, according to local leaders and crime statistics.
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