Billionaire Elon Musk, who has endorsed Donald Trump for America’s 60th presidential election- shared a video on his social media platform backing Trump's claim that 'Haitian migrants are stealing and eating pets'. In the clip, a woman identified as Rebekah Faidia on TikTok discusses voodoo practices in Haiti, describing them as "truly demonic." "My father and I are now estranged, but I knew him during my very, very young years. When he immigrated, he was a different person, and they weren't sending thousands of Haitians to one area… he said that the majority of the island practises voodoo," said the woman, believed to have been born in the United States.
In the clip, the woman claims that Haitians eat cats for two reasons—survival and as part of animal sacrifices for their religion.
"This is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. You can't just go to a food bank like you can here (in the US)… People in the US have a really hard time imagining that, but it’s true. Secondly, they perform animal sacrifices for their religion, voodoo. They make these sacrifices to their gods for different reasons," she added.
pic.twitter.com/0GHYnRzGdO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2024
Backing Trump, the woman said it "is not racist" to acknowledge the problem. "You all just want to joke about Trump and say that he's crazy for claiming this is happening instead of actually checking to see if it is true," she said.
In recent days, several videos have circulated on social media, claiming that Haitian migrants—who number around 20,000 in Springfield, Ohio—are consuming pets such as ducks, dogs and cats. Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and other Republican influencers have supported these claims, though reports remain unverified. "There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community," a Springfield spokesperson said.