Trump’s hatred of Haitians has deep American roots

But ultimately, none of that matters to the faithful. Baseless hatred of immigrants has been a driving force in Trump’s campaign since he descended the golden escalator. They are the scapegoat for every problem that the MAGA world faces, real or fanciful: housing prices, the job market, health problems, bureaucratic dysfunction in state and federal agencies. Rounding up as many as 20 million people—the “largest mass deportation in American history,” Trump keeps promising—some of whom, by the statistics alone, would have to be legal residents, if not citizens, is thus a panacea. And it will be violent: “a bloody history,” he recently vowed. And Haitians—black immigrants, heirs to a fierce tradition of resistance to slavery and white supremacy—have often been a particular target of Trump’s ire.

After the debate, Aiden’s father, Nathan Clark, issued an impassioned plea to Trump, Vance and other “morally bankrupt politicians,” as he called them, to stop using his son’s name in their attempts to “vomit” hatred of immigrants. But Trump’s rhetoric — as ridiculous and strange as it is to most who have seen it — threatens to ignite even more unrest. One group of white supremacists responded to Clark’s statement by saying that “those parents should be executed.” On Thursday and Friday, Springfield City Hall, several schools and the state Motor Vehicle Bureau were evacuated because of bomb threats. The mayor urged calm, speaking of the condemnation in an interview with This New York Times “when national politicians on the national stage misrepresent what is really going on and misrepresent our community.”

Dorsainvil, the community leader, said that while the Haitians in Springfield are afraid, they are determined to stay. “Haitians are not going to leave anytime soon,” he said. “So we all have to work toward a peaceful community.” After going through so much to get there, it’s hard to imagine them leaving their new homes. But with Trump and the online right deliberately escalating tensions in a desperate bid to regain control of the country, another difficult road is almost certainly ahead.