.WHEN DONALD TRUMP said the word "Springfield" 33 minutes in to the American presidential discussion on September 10th, David Muir, the co-moderator, was prepped. Because tiny Ohio city, Mr Trump announced, illegal aliens are "eating the canines, they're eating the cats, they are actually consuming the pet dogs of people that reside there". Mr Muir promptly answered that, according to Springfield's mayor, there were actually no credible files of pet-eating. The past head of state's insurance claim must possess struck many viewers as bizarre. But considerable amounts of Mr Trump's fans were actually keyed for it: the accusation had been actually moving around in right-wing groups on social networks, improved by Elon Musk, the manager of X. Just how carried out the city become at the center of a conservative conspiracy concept?