Donald Trump's dead cat strategy puts the pressure on JD Vance

If you feel as if American politics have taken yet another deep dive into the Trump-show maelstrom, you aren't alone. This past week has been a chaotic whirlwind of lies, false accusations, lurid scandals and even a foiled assassination plot. Even the sleaziest reality show wouldn't have the nerve to script something like this.

The assassination plot that capped off the week took place on Sunday at Trump's Palm Beach golf club, where the Secret Service reportedly spotted a man with a rifle in the bushes at one of the holes and shot at him, setting off a chase which concluded in his arrest. It's still early, but a cursory look at his background appears to show the man's politics were all over the place, from voting for Trump to donating to Democrats, and then begging Nikki Haley to team up with Vivek Ramaswamy to compete for the presidential nomination. At one time, he tried to be involved with recruiting foreign volunteers to fight in Ukraine, but nobody took him seriously.

And he was, naturally, a serious gun nut who'd been charged with crimes going back 20 years, many of them involving firearms. So it figures that the Secret Service reportedly found an AK-47 and a scope at the scene. As far as we can tell, this is yet another case of an armed-to-the-teeth, mentally ill man bent on violence.

Democrats across the board, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, condemned the attempt and called for calm. But it makes no difference. Republicans are on a tear right now, hurtling off in different directions in the wake of Trump's disastrous debate performance, and it's unlikely they're going to dial it back.

Trump's bizarre contention in the debate that Haitian immigrants are "eating the dogs and eating the cats" in Springfield, Ohio, has morphed into a full-blown panic resulting in bomb threats, school and hospital closings and terror among the Haitian community in that town. Despite the governor of Ohio, local leaders and business owners making it clear that none of these grisly accusations are true — and that the immigrants are hard-working, taxpaying contributors to the town's economic resurgence after years of decay — Republicans refuse to back down.

When asked about the bomb threats, Trump said he didn't know about them, and then continued to demean and degrade the immigrants, going so far as to say they would be among the first he deports if he wins the presidency. City officials say most Haitian immigrants in Springfield are in the U.S. legally, the New York Times reports but apparently that will no longer be an impediment. Trump is even beginning to use the word "remigration," which has been defined as a far-right concept "referring to the forced or promoted return of non-ethnically European immigrants, often including their descendants who were born in Europe, back to their place of racial origin, typically with no regard for their citizenship."

We know how he feels about those "s**thole" countries. He was railing against them during his presidency. Now we are seeing him gin up threats against legal immigrants who hail from them.

Sen. JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio and Trump's vice presidential nominee, made the rounds of the Sunday shows and doubled down on the calumny. When confronted by CNN's Dana Bash with the fact that the accusations about eating cats and dogs were lies, Vance effectively admitted it, suggesting that Republicans have to lie about these things to get the media to focus on their narrative:

I agree that Trump probably doesn't know that what he's saying is a lie. He said he heard it on television, presumably Fox News, so in his mind it may be a fact. And he doubles down on everything anyway because MAGA means never having to say you're sorry. But Vance knows better. Unfortunately, he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut and often gives away the game, as he did there.

It came to my attention that there is an actual political strategy known as the dead cat strategy, also known as "deadcatting," if you can believe that. It was coined by none other than former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London:

There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table — and I don't mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, "Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!" In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat — the thing you want them to talk about — and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.

According to The Bulwark's Marc Caputo, the Trump campaign is very happy with this Haitian immigration story. He says they believe that if the media is talking about immigration (even if it's a lie) they're winning, because it's their strongest issue in polling. That's likely true to some degree but it's not the only reason they won't let go of it. The Trump campaign doesn't want the media rehashing his dismal debate performance, and they  don't want rumors about Trump associate Laura Loomer, which have caused a rift in the GOP coalition, to be a topic of conversation. 

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Using an actual "dead cat" is a bit on the nose, but I have no doubt that at least some of them are aware of the concept. JD Vance probably is. Even after the bomb threats started and the story had been thoroughly debunked, he tweeted: "In short, don't let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing."

MAGA insiders are clearly trying to distract from their campaign's shortcomings, with Trump posting one of the silliest, most juvenile posts he's ever written to try to get a new controversy going. On Sunday he blurted out: "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT." (Maybe he let his six-year-old grandson play with his phone, but I doubt it.) Vance's admission that they "create stories," along with his obstreperous appearances on the Sunday shows overshadowed the all-caps Swift hate, and then another gun nut gave him the ultimate gift of thwarted martyrdom and overwhelmed everything else.

I wish we could say this would also mean that Haitian immigrants in Springfield will be able to go back to their lives and put these horrible lies and accusations behind them. But earlier on Sunday, Trump's campaign said he plans to visit there "very soon." They aren't going to let this go, at least not until they find a new outrage to entertain their supporters and distract from the fact that Trump is deteriorating more every day and Vance isn't ready for prime time. We can only hope that nobody gets hurt before they move on to the next shiny object.