Seemingly out of the blue Monday morning, supporters of former president Donald Trump began posting myriad AI-generated images depicting the Republican presidential nominee as a savior. Not of the American Dream or of Christianity, mind you, the normal targets of such praise. Instead, Trump was shown protecting ducks and kitty cats.

If you are not a denizen of the right’s conversational bubble, this will probably strike you as incomprehensible. If you are such a denizen, though, you know what’s happening: Trump and his allies — and his running mate! — are elevating false or unsubstantiated claims about immigrants injuring and eating pets and other animals. And of course, blaming the Biden administration and Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for this thing-that-is-not-demonstrably-happening happening.

The claim centers on Springfield, Ohio, a small city a bit southwest of the state capital of Columbus. A screenshot of a Facebook post purportedly from a local resident warns that the author’s neighbor’s daughter’s friend had discovered that her neighbors — supposedly Haitian immigrants — were trying to eat her cat. She also claimed (this time crediting “Rangers & police”) that similar fates were befalling ducks and geese at a local park...