John Legend took to social media to counter former President Donald Trump’s recent inflammatory and false remarks about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, Legend’s hometown. During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump made racist claims, suggesting that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats” of local residents. His claims come just days after his VP pick, JD Vance made the same outrageous claims on social media.
Despite repeated fact-checks by ABC News debate moderators who pointed out that city officials in the Ohio town denied any evidence that immigrants were actually eating pets, Trump doubled down, saying “the people on television” were saying it. When pressed, Trump just said, “We’ll find out.”
In his video, Legend addressed his followers, saying, “You may have heard of Springfield, Ohio this week. In fact, if you watched the debate, we were discussed by our presidential candidates, including a very special, interesting man named Donald J. Trump.” He went on to describe the city’s historical context, explaining, “Our city had been shrinking for decades. We didn’t have enough jobs, we didn’t have enough opportunity. So people left and went somewhere else.”
Legend detailed how Springfield’s population had “declined from 75,000 to about 60,000 over recent years. However, with new job opportunities emerging under the Biden administration, including manufacturing jobs, the city saw an influx of Haitian immigrants granted visas to fill these positions.” He went onto say “During the same time, there had been upheaval and turmoil in Haiti, and the federal government granted visas and immigration status to a certain number of Haitian immigrants so they could come to our country legally.”
The singer said Springfield added “15,000 or so immigrants” to the population of 60,000. “You might say, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people.’ For a town that only had 60,000 before, that’s a 25 percent increase. That is correct.”
The singer also acknowledged the challenges of integrating a new population, noting, “You might imagine there are some challenges with integrating a new population, new language, new culture, new dietary preferences. All kinds of reasons why there might be growing pains — making sure there are enough services to accommodate the new larger population that might need bilingual.”
Regardless, Legend said: “The bottom line is these people came to Springfield because there were jobs for them, and they were willing to work, and they wanted to live the American Dream.”
He compared the stories of those in Springfield to “your German ancestors, your Irish ancestors, your Italian ancestors, your Jewish ancestors, your Jamaican ancestors, your Polish ancestors. All these ancestors were moved to this country, maybe not speaking the language that everyone else spoke, maybe not eating the same food, maybe having to adjust.” He continued, “But all coming because they saw opportunity for themselves and their families in the American dream, and they came here to do that.”
Legend then spoke about embracing immigrants in all communties. “Some facts about immigrants: They usually do very well here. They are hardworking, they’re ambitious. They commit less crime than native-born Americans, and they will assimilate and integrate in time. But it takes time, so I think all of us need to have the same kind of grace that we would want our ancestors to have.” He added, “I grew up in the Christian tradition. We said to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and treat strangers as though they might be Christ. How about we adopt that ethos, when we talk about immigrants moving to our communities, and don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them?”
Legend firmly rejected Trump’s xenophobic and racist rhetoric, asserting at the end of the video, “Nobody’s eating cats, nobody’s eating dogs. We all just want to live and flourish and raise our families in a healthy and safe environment. How about we love one another?”