‘This needs to stop now’: Ohio father asks Trump to stop using his late son’s name to spread hate

Ohio father Nathan Clark has demanded that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance stop using his late son Aidan’s name to spread their hateful anti-immigration rhetoric.

Clark hails from Springfield, OH, which was thrust into the spotlight after Trump’s egregious lies about the city during the presidential debate. During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were causing chaos in the town, including “eating” their neighbors’ pets.

He declared, “In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating—they are eating the pets of the people that live there.” The racist and xenophobic conspiracy theory was so outrageous that the debate moderators were forced to step in and tell Trump that there were no credible reports of any pets being harmed by immigrants.

However, the pet-eating conspiracy theory isn’t the only Springfield story Trump and his running mate have been spreading. They have also been using the 2023 accidental death of Aidan Clark to push their extreme rhetoric.

Nathan Clark speaks out against Donald Trump and J. D. Vance

Clark appeared at a city commission meeting in Springfield, OH, on the same night as the presidential debate and demanded that Trump and Vance stop politicizing his son’s passing. In a heartbreaking speech, Clark explained that Trump and his campaign had no permission to say Aidan’s name yet have twisted the child’s passing for their own gain.

On September 9, Trump’s campaign account on X posted an image of Aidan with the caption, “REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.” On September 10, Vance tried to use Aidan to direct attention away from the lies about residents eating pets, writing, “Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here.”

Now, Clark’s father has had enough of Vance and Trump exploiting his son. He stated, “They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now.” Additionally, he called out Trump and Vance for spreading misinformation about Aidan by insinuating he was murdered by a Haitian immigrant, even though he died in a vehicular accident. Clark explained, “My son was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti.”

In August of 2023, Aidan was killed when the school bus he was riding collided with a minivan driven by Hermanio Joseph. Joseph was driving in the opposite direction as the bus but crossed over the center line when the sun got in his eyes. The bus was unable to avoid him, and the two vehicles collided, killing Aidan and leaving 23 students injured.

There’s no evidence this incident was anything other than an unfortunate accident. However, Joseph was still held accountable for failing in his duty to stay in his lane and is serving a 13-and-a-half-year prison sentence. Yet, in addition to their grief, Aidan’s family has had to deal with Trump and Vance using his death to spread hatred.

Clark stated that Trump’s camp can “vomit all the hate they want,” but they cannot use his son’s name to do so. He stated, “They are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio.”

The emotional toll of what Trump and Vance are doing is so great that Clark even stated he wished his child had been killed by a white man just so “the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone.” It’s unfathomable that this is a thought that even has to cross a grieving parent’s mind, but due to conservatives’ love of misinformation and using everyone and everything to spread their hatred, it is something parents have to think about.

Aidan’s parents wanted him to be remembered for his “unique, caring and inquisitive soul.” They wanted him to be remembered for things like his love of gardening with his father and his “unparalleled” love of sports. Instead of being permitted to grieve and preserve Aidan’s memory, they have had to face their son becoming entwined with MAGA hatred without their permission, as the movement’s cruelty knows no bounds.