The GOP experts on race

Hate against Haitians sparked by Republican running mates Donald Trump and J.D. Vance spilled over to the Jamaican community in Springfield, Missouri, this week.

In a post on Facebook, the Jamaican Patty Co. said an employee was confronted by an angry white woman who thought she was addressing Haitians.

"[W]e received a call from a disgruntled person regarding Haitians filing a lawsuit against the Trump/Vance ticket," the company explained. "Without identifying herself, she aggressively confronted us and mistaken us for Haitians and not Jamaicans."

The woman reportedly hung up before the restaurant could express a stance.

"The position we were about to take with her was, we as a company believe in standing up for what is right," the restaurant's posting said. "We do not condone misinformation or frivolous attacks on our neighbors, which we now know has given merit to this new lawsuit."

"The audacity of this misinformed person. We hope that this election cycle does not get too ugly. Let us treat people the way we would like to be treated. God help us."

With less than six weeks until Election Day and early voting already underway in four states, Donald Trump seems to have locked in on his closing message for what he acknowledges will be his final presidential campaign if he loses in November. It’s the same message that launched his political career nine years ago: attacking immigrants.

This week Trump excised his pet-eating derangement, adding in another element: machine guns.

“We can’t have factories being built where you have criminals walking down the street with the worst weapons that you’ve ever seen, with machine guns and everything else,” Trump declared Tuesday at an event billed as a manufacturing policy speech in which he appeared to come out in favor of an assault weapons ban.

On Wednesday, the ex-president, a convicted felon who legally cannot own even a pistol, standing in front of a banner that read "Jobs Jobs Jobs," expanded his claims at a rally in North Carolina (video below).

"But Kamala should have closed the border years ago, and we wouldn't have hostile takeovers of Springfield, Ohio, Aurora Colorado, where they're actually going in with massive machine gun-type equipment. they're going in with guns that are beyond even military scope, and they're taking over apartment buildings, they're taking over, real estate – they're in the real estate development business. Congratulations," Trump said sarcastically. "These are, in that case, people from Venezuela. Young street gang members that were sent here by the Venezuelan government."

Mark Jacob, an author and former Chicago Tribune editor turned media critic, blasted Trump and the mainstream media: "Trump’s lies to foment hatred against immigrants keep getting more vivid and unhinged, and major media are DOING A TERRIBLE JOB of explaining how dangerous this is."

Luis Moreno, a former U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, remarked: "Besides eating cats, Haitian immigrants are now deploying crew served laser beam systems. We need to find out who is training these people!"

Trump had made similar, false claims during the debate, saying, "we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they're coming in and they're taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions. Unions are going to be affected very soon. And you see what's happening. You see what's happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country. And they're destroying our country. They're dangerous. They're at the highest level of criminality. And we have to get them out. We have to get them out fast."

The New York Times reported Trump's claims of hostile takeovers by Venezuelan gangs appeared to originate from allegations made by a landlord.

"As far back as May 2023, Aurora officials had been trying to force an out-of-state landlord to fix up three blighted apartment complexes," The Times reported earlier this month. "In July 2024, the landlord, CBZ Management, which says it is based in Colorado and Brooklyn, offered a new argument for why it couldn’t repair the buildings: Venezuelan gangs had taken over, and the property managers had been forced to flee."

Those claims were quickly repeated, and later, a public relations agent hired by the landlord sent an even more elaborate story to a local Fox affiliate as a "tip."

In the hours after far-right U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins posted a racist tweet attacking Haitian immigrants, top Republicans including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, moved to protect their fellow Louisiana Congressman.

Zeteo media correspondent Justin Baragona posted a screenshot of Higgin's widely-condemned tweet, which read: "Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters... but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th."

Higgins' comment about "our President and VP" referred to Republican nominees Donald Trump and JD Vance, who are facing criminal charges for "pet-eating" lies attacking Haitians in the state of Ohio.

MSNBC host, legal contributor and correspondent Katie Phang remarked: "Higgins doesn’t try to hide the racism or the xenophobia. Instead, he decides that full bore 'round ‘em up and string ‘em up' energy was the way to go."

Congressman Higgins has not apologized, and appears unrepentant.

"Despite the backlash and ultimate decision to take down the post after he said he prayed on it, Higgins told CNN he stood by his demeaning comments," the news network reported.

“It’s all true,” Higgins said of his post. “I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I’ll say what I want.”

“It’s not a big deal to me. It’s like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life.”

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who last year was in the running to be Speaker of the House and this year rumored to have been on Donald Trump's vice presidential shortlist, and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), tried to minimize the impact of Higgins' attack on Haitians.

House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also from Louisiana, defended Higgins.

Scalise, who reportedly once boasted he was "David Duke without the baggage"—a reference to the former KKK Grand Wizard whom Higgins reportedly supported in a Louisiana gubernatorial race—stood on the House floor and opposed the motion to censure Higgins.