.WHEN DONALD TRUMP said the word "Springfield" 33 minutes in to the American presidential discussion on September 10th, David Muir, the co-moderator, was prepared. In that small Ohio town, Mr Trump stated, illegal aliens are "consuming the pets, they're eating the pussy-cats, they are actually consuming the dogs of individuals that live there". Mr Muir promptly answered that, according to Springfield's city manager, there were actually no qualified records of pet-eating. The previous head of state's claim should possess attacked numerous viewers as unusual. Yet lots of Mr Trump's fans were actually topped for it: the claims had been circulating in conservative groups on social media, improved by Elon Musk, the proprietor of X. Just how performed the city become at the center of a conservative conspiracy theory?