After months of disagreements, a group of military families who lost loved ones in a bombing during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan gathered on a Zoom call last December. On the line with them was a 35-year-old Republican operative and Marine Corps veteran who some saw as helpful and others saw as divisive.

The group had taken to calling itself the Abbey Gate 13 Coalition, a reference to the location at Kabul’s airport where 13 U.S. troops and 170 Afghans had been killed in a suicide bombing on Aug. 26, 2021, in the closing days of America’s longest war, marking a low point in President Joe Biden’s term. The relatives participating expressed disgust with the Biden administration’s handling of the operation, but the group had started to splinter over disputes that included whether to overtly support Donald Trump, according to interviews with people involved and text messages obtained by The Washington Post.

The group asked the mothers of two Marines killed in the bombing to leave over those disagreements, and the rest signed a formal memorandum of understanding that encouraged secrecy and solidarity, according to several parents involved and a copy obtained by The Post. The group added additional members over the next year, while other families chose to abstain.

The women who left the group, Cheryl Rex and Shana Chappell, said the political adviser, Marlon Bateman, told the family members that they could generate attention and donations by staging “political stunts.” Other families on the call deny that happened, and Bateman said he does not remember ever saying words to that effect.

The group captured headlines with recent visits to Capitol Hill, a speaking engagement during the Republican National Convention and a trip to Arlington National Cemetery with Trump on the third anniversary of the bombing. The latter event included an altercation between Trump campaign employees and a cemetery worker who had sought to enforce a law prohibiting partisan activity at the hallowed site, Army officials said. Several families then released videos through the Trump campaign to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, his election opponent, after she criticized his campaign’s actions at the cemetery.

As Trump seeks to pin the tragedy on Harris, she has fought back by noting that Trump oversaw the negotiation of a deal with Taliban militants in February 2020 that undercut the Afghan government and called for the exit of all U.S. troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban members from Afghan prisons.

This account of the Abbey Gate coalition’s efforts is based on interviews with 18 people, including Gold Star family members, Bateman, and congressional and Pentagon officials. The families’ journey to becoming prominent pro-Trump surrogates followed initial interaction with Biden that angered them followed by active outreach from Trump and support from Bateman and Republican congressmen. The Trump campaign, in its tightly contested race with Harris, has increasingly relied on the group to bolster attacks on Harris over the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Bateman — a former Trump administration official who has helped raise funds for Trump’s campaign this year — said in an emailed response to questions that he assisted the families without pay. He first connected with Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover, and advised him to invite all 13 families to join in the same “pursuit of accountability,” he said. Bateman was drawn to the mission in part because he previously served in 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines — the same unit that went on to suffer significant U.S. losses at Abbey Gate.

“I see this as an obligation to honor the legacies of the 13 fallen heroes,” he wrote. “At their request, I helped them navigate the most effective way to get answers about what happened to their children and why, including suggesting they prioritize meetings with members of leadership and members who were already conducting oversight on this matter.”

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the campaign does not pay Bateman. It has covered travel costs for some of the families to attend Trump events, she said.

Hoover said that Bateman has been “integral” in their efforts and is “family for us now.” It is common for interest groups to have professional advisers.

“We didn’t ask to be political about it,” Hoover said. “In order to get done changes like we want to see, we’ve got to become a little bit political and go through that climate, good, bad or indifferent.”

The adviser

Bateman’s work with the group began last year, after Hoover’s state attorney general, Sean Reyes (R-Utah), connected him with Bateman.

In March 2023, Bateman contacted a fellow alumnus of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, Jonathan Wilcox, who now works for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Issa became the first lawmaker to bring the families to Congress, coordinating with the staff of Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for a roundtable discussion in August 2023.

“From the start, I’ve seen Marlon Bateman skillfully and selflessly serve these Gold Star families as their friend, adviser, and tireless champion,” Issa said in a statement.

The event gave the families an opportunity to draw attention to their children, which is always one of their goals, they said. But behind the scenes, there was tension over the way forward.

Chappell, the mother of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, had not traveled for the events in Washington and took issue with the way some of the other members talked about her, according to text messages between her and Bateman that she provided to The Post.

On Dec. 3, Bateman contacted her and raised concerns about “division that is being formed” in the group. Others involved said that Chappell had disparaged several people and taken issue with how Nikoui’s father, Steven, spoke about their son.

Chappell responded to Bateman that while she still saw Biden as responsible for her son’s death, she saw no chance of getting accountability and wanted to move on.

“Kareem was not political and he disliked Trump and Biden equally so i do not want my son being used in any way to endorse Trump,” she wrote Bateman. “That would piss my son off if he was alive.”

Bateman replied that he was in an “impossible situation” attempting to moderate discussion among the families. He invited Chappell to a Dec. 8 meeting, at which point the other families said she was no longer welcome, she said.

Steven Nikoui, in a written response to questions, said it was “absurd” for Chappell to object to him speaking about their son. She had already done so repeatedly, he said. Chappell said that she had a change of heart, even as she continues to support Trump, and spoke out about other parents after they were “crappy” to her.

Cheryl Rex, the mother of Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20, said she split with the group at the same meeting after she voiced concerns about a proposed memorandum to govern the group. It said that members could be removed from the coalition “for cause” and must keep information shared with the group secret.

Rex, who also had previously spoken out against Biden, said she did not sign the agreement and that others stopped speaking to her after she raised concerns about it and the partisan actions they were pursuing. Bateman “created division within the families” and suggested they should do “political stunts” to generate attention for their cause, she alleged.

Several other family members disputed that account and said the families instead brainstormed how to generate attention. Animosity was evident between Chappell and Steven Nikoui, Hoover said, and the group decided they would rather work with him. He added that he drafted the memorandum to protect both the coalition and Bateman after months of negativity.

“Steve is the dad, and he has every right to say the things he says and do the things that he’s doing in the name of his son,” Hoover said. “No one can take that away from him.”

In March, Steven Nikoui was detained by Capitol Police during Biden’s State of the Union address after an outburst that included “Remember Abbey Gate!”

Shortly before the speech, Bateman posted on X, “Taking off to disrupt the State of the Union w/ @jordanbpeterson,” with a photograph of him and Jordan Peterson, a conservative Canadian author who was attending the speech as the guest of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Bateman and Nikoui both denied that they had planned the outburst, with Bateman saying his post on X was an unrelated “lighthearted message,” and Nikoui saying it was “absurd” to think that Bateman had any role. In an interview shortly after his arrest and subsequent release, the father told Sean Hannity on Fox News that he “just jumped up” during the speech and it was like “the Holy Spirit got in me.”

Biden and Trump

For three years, numerous Abbey Gate families have openly fumed about their meeting with Biden at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as their children’s remains were returned. They’ve accused Biden of checking his watch, interrupting them and bringing up the loss of his son Beau to cancer, which they viewed as insensitive.

That behavior stands in contrast to how Trump has treated them, they said. Within days of the bombing, he called many of them individually, expressing condolences and listening as they grieved.

The relationship advanced in summer 2023, when Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) arranged to bring the families to visit Trump at his golf club in Bedminister, N.J. Bateman attended, posting online that Trump had spent hours taking photos, signing books and hats, joining them for dinner and entertaining them with music. Another person familiar with the visit said it also included discussion of how poorly Biden’s interaction with the families went.

Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Sgt. Nicole Gee, said Trump’s treatment at Bedminster and the contrast with Dover convinced her that she should become an advocate for him. “He was just much more willing to be frank and open and honest with us and support our belief that it didn’t have to happen,” she said.

Last month, on the third anniversary of the bombing, Bateman and the families brought Trump to visit the headstones of Hoover, Gee, and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, at Arlington. Army officials instructed Trump’s team not to take photos or video at the gravesites due to a federal law that forbids political activities in military cemeteries. The Army’s guidance also said Trump could not bring campaign staff.

But Trump’s staff members, including Trump’s co-campaign manager and campaign spokesman, came anyway. The visit became so fraught that military staff began conversing with congressional aides who were present to talk to Trump, because they did not want to be dealing with an official political campaign. (A photo of Biden visiting the cemetery as vice president in 2010 was used in a campaign social media post 10 years later with a disclaimer.)

To reach the gravesites in August, Army officials said, Trump aides pushed past a cemetery employee and recorded anyway, producing a campaign TikTok. The families responded with a joint statement supporting Trump’s visit. The Trump campaign denied that a physical altercation occurred and, without evidence, accused the cemetery employee of having a mental health episode, which the Army said was false. The cemetery employee decided not to press charges to protect her privacy, and both the Army and the Trump campaign have said they considered the matter closed.

Bateman appeared with Trump during the memorial ceremony, and posted on social media afterward that it was an “honor to accompany” the former president.

Last Monday, several of the families returned to Washington as McCaul released a new investigative report about the fall of Afghanistan. It included few details that had not been previously reported, but laid out again how U.S. military officials were frustrated with civilian leaders in Washington as security began to crumble.

Throughout the tearful news conference, multiple family members said they did not want to be political — while explicitly urging Americans to vote for Trump over Harris.

“Everybody that says we’re being played, we’re pawns, all these other things — for us, it’s not political. None of us asked to be put in this position,” said Cheryl Juels, Gee’s aunt. “It’s unfortunate that it’s turned into this big political thing between Republicans and Democrats.”

Jim McCollum, the father of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, also acknowledged Bateman, saying “he has been a rock for us to help us get through this process.” In a text message to The Post, he said that being a part of the coalition “has been instrumental in my healing process” as they sought answers. “I’m upset and disappointed that someone would tarnish any of us,” he said.

On Tuesday, families convened again in the Capitol rotunda for a ceremony posthumously presenting the 13 troops killed with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award that lawmakers can approve.

All 13 were recognized. They include 11 Marines: Gee, Hoover, McCollum, Merola, Nikoui, Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, and Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz. Also recognized were Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, a soldier, and Navy Hospital Corpsman Maxton Soviak.

For some of the relatives, it was the first time seeing one another since Dover.

“It was such an honor because my son deserved it,” said Elizabeth Holguin, Espinoza’s mother. “I don’t get political. I stand for what my son stood for — for the red, white and blue.”

Monika Mathur contributed to this report.

A super PAC that Elon Musk helped create has ramped up spending on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in recent weeks, splashing out millions of dollars primarily in swing states.

The burst of activity adds to the evidence of Musk’s growing political alliance with the former president, with the billionaire and his funding playing a key role in the effort to win Trump a second term.

The committee, called America PAC, has spent nearly $33 million since it emerged from a summer spending lull in mid-August, far exceeding the amount it had spent to that date since its formation in late May, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Filings show the money has primarily funded get-out-the vote operations in battleground states including door-knocking, digital advertising and mailers.

In recent days, America PAC has barraged voters in North Carolina with door-hangers and mail pieces. One mailer provided to The Washington Post calls Democratic nominee Kamala Harris “Radical. Liberal. Dangerous” while describing Trump as the candidate who would “secure our border, restore law & order and lower costs for North Carolinians.”

Musk said in a July interview with controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson that America PAC is not intended to be “hyperpartisan,” but materials distributed in North Carolina and online ads reviewed by The Post clearly support Trump and oppose Harris. They largely echo right-wing rhetoric that Musk has recently promoted on his social media platform X, where he has railed against immigration and made unsubstantiated claims of election interference.

Another door-hanger says “Make your plan to VOTE” and includes a QR code that points to America PAC’s webpage, where voters who provide personal information are directed to official pages for voter registration or requesting an absentee ballot.

That reflects America PAC’s decision, like numerous other pro-Trump committees, to diverge from their candidate by encouraging voters to cast ballots however they prefer. Trump continues to criticize voting by mail and claims without evidence that it has allowed millions of fraudulent ballots to be cast.

Whether the committee is targeting the North Carolina voters that Trump needs to carry the state is less clear. The mailers and door-hangers obtained by The Post were delivered to a longtime conservative operative in the state who was already committed to Trump and votes regularly in federal elections.

“It’s a little screwy that I’m on their list,” said the individual, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign tactics candidly. “Stupid to waste money on someone who is a guaranteed Trump vote.”

America PAC also has increased online spending in recent days, largely targeting swing states such as Nevada, Georgia and Arizona.

The committee has more than doubled its spending on X over the past month — from $37,000 to more than $100,000 — with its ads mostly targeted at users in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia, according to data disclosed by the platform on Sept. 13. The PAC’s spending has been much greater on other, larger platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, including more than $383,000 on Google ads primarily targeted in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

A spokesman for America PAC declined to comment on its activities, which, apart from mandated FEC reports, have largely been shrouded in secrecy since the committee’s inception. But several people familiar with the effort described Musk’s close involvement in the project and the entrepreneur’s interest in helping Trump win because of his desire to cut government spending and the candidate’s policies on the border and public safety.

Musk has been intensely focused from the project’s beginnings on the PAC’s ground game, aiming to reach the hundreds of thousands of voters who are generally unengaged in the election or not registered, according to these people.

“He’s more interested in the nuts and bolts, rather than the air war stuff,” one of the individuals said, speaking anonymously to describe private conversations. “If Trump pulls this off, it will be Elon’s PAC that will have heavily contributed to that success because there is no other serious ground game going on.”

Musk joined forces in early spring with Richard Weekley, a Texas real estate developer and Republican donor, and Denis Calabrese, a Republican political strategist, to assemble a team and propose a strategy for a pro-Trump PAC.

Weekley tapped two major firms in Texas — Raconteur Media for digital advertising and In Field Strategies for canvassing — and told them to draw up a plan, according to people familiar with the matter.

During an hour-and-a-half meeting in Musk’s sparsely decorated apartment in downtown Austin, the billionaire told the group that he was looking to trigger a “red wave,” with his main goal being to register more Trump voters in the battleground states, according to a person familiar with the meeting. The group discussed deploying thousands of canvassers in battleground states.

At the meeting, Musk was also presented an advertising plan that included purchasing TV spots, according to the person. Musk said he was skeptical of the need for TV advertising because he grew electric automaker Tesla into a giant without TV commercials. One of his advisers countered that “this is Trump not Tesla.” Musk laughed and said that was a fair point, the person said.

The vendors initially estimated America PAC would need between $100 million to $130 million to pull off Musk’s ambitious vision in such a short timeline. Musk didn’t commit to a specific dollar amount, but said he was open to increasing or decreasing his donations depending on what was needed, the person said.

Musk stayed engaged in the weeks after the planning meeting, checking on progress in hour-long meetings every Friday, the people familiar with the matter said.

During those calls, Musk focused on granular details of the PAC’s operations: how many people had been hired, how many voters had been contacted, how many new people had they registered. Several weeks into the effort, the entrepreneur brought on political operatives Phil Cox, David Rexrode and Generra Peck, the people said.

In mid-July, Peck sent Raconteur and In Field a short email that said the committee was moving forward with different vendors without any further explanation, the people said. Calabrese and Weekley have since been “sidelined” in the effort, one of the people said.

Calabrese and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Weekley could not be reached for comment.

Since firing its original vendors, America PAC has hired several canvassing firms, including one called Blitz Canvassing, according to FEC filings. A job ad for Blitz in Michigan invites applicants to “come work at America PAC — the super PAC working to elect Donald Trump and defeat Kamala Harris.”

“We want patriots — moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, those working nights and weekends, or those looking for a 50 hour workweek,” the ad says. “Trump fights for us. Now we need you to come work — to fight back for him.”

On the job application, Blitz makes America PAC’s values and mission clear: “We are fiscal conservatives, believe in limited government, and know that this is the greatest country in the world. We will work to advocate for these ideals every day while fighting to save this country. Is this agreeable to you?”

Blitz is part of a partnership of consulting firms called GP3, where Cox is a partner. America PAC’s filings indicate it is also doing business with two other partners of GP3, Red Maverick Media and IMGE, which have provided printing, postage and digital ad services.

Cox did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post.

Since endorsing Trump on the day the former president was shot at a Pennsylvania rally in July, Musk has used his account on X to fiercely advocate for the Republican nominee and to bash his opponent. The entrepreneur has at times amplified false claims, including allegations of widespread noncitizen voting that have prompted pressure campaigns on local election officials.

Some online ads circulated by America PAC also push unfounded claims. One placed on X suggests without evidence that the former president’s political opponents “tried to kick Trump off your ballot. They even tried to end his campaign and take him out for good.”

Musk has also frequently attacked Harris on X. One of his posts this month included a fake image apparently generated with artificial intelligence that depicted her in a red uniform emblazoned with a hammer and sickle.

Days later, an ad placed by America PAC on Facebook and Instagram included a video with a Russian-accented narration that said, “Meet Comrade Kamala — Ready to bring Soviet Union to Michigan.”

Donald Trump latched onto a new false claim before a prime-time debate audience of 67 million people: Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating people’s pets. He defended his inaccurate assertions that he won the 2020 election and that Kamala Harris misrepresented her racial identity. The next day he went to memorials for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer — who last year shared a video declaring the assault an “inside job” and more recently helped spread baseless allegations that Harris got forbidden debate tips through high-tech pearl earrings.

By the end of the week — with some of his allies squirming — Trump was pushing the idea, too.

“I hear she got the questions,” Trump of Harris at his Friday night rally in Las Vegas, suggesting his opponent had the debate topics in advance. “And I also hear she had something in the ear, a little something in the ear. ‘No Kamala, do this — say it this way Kamala.’”

Led by Trump, Republicans have increasingly embraced groundless allegations that were once relegated to the political fringes, ensuring they are part of the party’s message to voters in the final, critical months of this year’s election. Their approach has been on vivid display lately, from the debate stage in Philadelphia to other high-profile public appearances to social media — where false information has spread quickly and Trump has been posting a stream of artificial intelligence-generated images of himself with pets supposedly under threat. In the process, they have perpetuated pernicious stereotypes about immigrants and others that critics have called dangerous.

More than a decade after launching his political career with the baseless allegations that Barack Obama was not born the U.S., the former president and his allies continue to spout meritless tales that find a wide audience on the right — despite renewed objections from conservatives who call it unproductive.

Even some of Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress were aghast at Loomer’s appearances with Trump, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) saying he hopes “this problem gets resolved.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Friday called Loomer a “crazy conspiracy theorist” and declared that a “DNC plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning reelection.”

“Enough,” he pleaded.

Trump defended Loomer at a Friday news conference. Hours later, he wrote in a post on Truth Social: “I disagree with the statements she made but, like the many millions of people who support me, she is tired of watching the Radical Left Marxists and Fascists violently attack and smear me.”

Even as some Republicans suggested that Trump instead focus his attention on substantively discussing matters where the party has a clear political advantage, many GOP leaders dodged questions about the Haitian immigrant claims, and a few prominent Republicans placed the blame on Trump and his history of pushing false, fringe notions into the mainstream.

“If you’re on the ballot this fall, you have to be nervous about this type of distraction,” said former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump in the 2024 primaries. He said outlandish claims such as the viral, debunked rumor about pet-eating Haitians “undermine the substance” of the issue Republicans want to press — in this case, immigration.

“Conspiracy theories have been around a long time,” he said. “But the difference is that you have leaders embracing conspiracy theories rather than responding with the truth.”

Trump’s campaign did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

One of the most attention-grabbing assertions circulating on the right centers on the town of Springfield, Ohio, where a wave of dehumanizing social media posts asserted that Haitian immigrants there were killing and eating people’s pets. After Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), elevated the claim — saying he had reports from constituents but that, “it’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false” — police officials said there is no evidence to support the notion. But Trump repeated it in Tuesday night’s presidential debate, saying immigrants in Springfield are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats.”

Springfield, with a population of roughly 60,000, has had an influx of an estimated 15,000-20,000 Haitians who were granted temporary protective status in the U.S. ever since the country was overtaken by gang violence and chaos. But while parts of the town’s economy have been boosted by the immigrant workforce, other services have strained to accommodate the expanded population. After Trump repeated the unsubstantiated smear from the debate stage, a bomb threat used “hateful language” toward Haitians and targeted city hall and other buildings in the city, including an elementary school, according to the mayor.

As the pet-eating claims jumped from social media to Vance to Trump himself, some Republicans aired their frustrations publicly. They suggested their party was too beholden to false allegations that resonate with a hardcore swath of the base but confuse or appall other Americans.

“JUST GOT TRUMP TO REPEAT YOUR LIE ABOUT THE PETS,” read one profanity-laced message the conservative commentator Erick Erickson posted on social media. “CONGRATS ON SETTING THE NEWS STORIES TOMORROW BY LYING SO TRUMP PICKS IT UP.” Trump, Erickson said in another post, “gets what he deserves … surrounded by crazy people who say crazy things.”

Trump’s allies in Congress were once again put on the spot. Ahead of the debate on Tuesday, as Vance took up the pet-eating rumors, Sen. Rick Scott (R) — who is running for reelection in Florida, home to many Haitians — told HuffPost, “I’ve got a wonderful experience with Haitians in my state.” After the debate, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) walked away from reporters when they began to ask about Trump’s performance.

“I don’t respond to quotes,” Rep. John Duarte told online news site NOTUS when asked about the Springfield issue, before adding that he “wouldn’t have said it.”

Still, many others defended Trump’s comments. Darrell Scott, an Ohio-based pastor and longtime Trump supporter who is helping with Black voter outreach, pointed to a resident’s call to police alleging they saw Haitian migrants carrying geese and said Democrats have previously discounted claims that end up having merit.

Trump “has a history of saying things that people discounted initially,” Scott said. When Trump says something, he added, “I take his word.”

David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who now supports Harris, said the claims’ quick spread on the right reflects “the currency of the anti-immigrant movement in this country.”

“How did we get to Haitians eating dogs? Its all rooted in that,” he said. “It’s a simple reflection of where their politics are.”

With polls showing Trump holding a clear advantage on immigration, some Republicans have suggested that there are numerous other, more effective avenues for raising the issue. “There are plenty of things to talk about — including the overwhelming impact that some communities are having on their community services. That impact is undeniable. Other things are a distraction,” said former Republican senator Roy Blunt of Missouri.

Trump on Friday brushed off concerns about his decision to amplify the false claims about Haitians. “The real threat is what’s happening at our border,” he told reporters at a news conference.

When it comes to Loomer, Trump has praised and amplified her on social media throughout his campaign, at one point sharing her false statement that Harris’s birth certificate shows she is “lying about being Black.” (The document Loomer shared accurately lists Harris’s father as “Jamaican” — which does not mean she is not Black. Harris is Black and Indian American.)

Trump on Friday defended Loomer as “strong person” with “strong opinions.” Asked at the news conference about her comments about 9/11 as well as recent racist remarks about Harris, Trump said he would try to learn more and issue a statement.

“I don’t control Laura,” Trump said. “Laura has to say what she wants. She’s a free spirit.”

Asked for comment on Friday, Loomer said she did not believe the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were an “inside job” when she shared a video with that phrase.

The former president also recently shared posts with explicit nods to QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that has gained particular traction among his supporters and casts Trump as a savior fighting shadowy forces — often Democrats or societal elites — who sex-traffic children. The crowds at Trump rallies are dotted with Q references: A “We the Q People” T-shirt, a license plate with the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have rallied behind Trump’s allegations of vast government conspiracies to thwart him, including Trump’s frequent, unsubstantiated accusation that Biden and Harris are behind his criminal prosecutions. Some have claimed without evidence that Democrats are illegally registering undocumented immigrants to vote; Trump said at Tuesday’s debate that “people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them into our country.”

Zachary Mueller, research director at America’s Voice — which advocates for a path to citizenship for undocumented people — said anti-immigrant conspiracy theories are “no longer coming from kooks in the basement.”

“What’s new is how mainstream all of this is,” he said. “What’s new is how central it is to the presidential campaign.”

Although conspiracy theories and false statements have long been present in campaigns, Trump’s candidacy for president ushered in an era defined by powerful political myths that bound him to his followers, experts say.

“Politicians who want greater control over the electorate need to get their followers on board and they can do that by getting them to deny what they see with their own eyes,” said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology who studies the rise and fall of constitutional governments at Princeton. “How do they do that? They tell people what to believe and then they attack the institutions that would normally be a source of truthful information.”

Trump supporters regularly echo the former president’s false statements at his rallies. But some are eager to focus elsewhere. When Joanne Pierce, who is Native American, repeated the inaccurate claim that Harris isn’t Black at a rally for Vance this summer, her White friend Linda Jenkins tried to intervene.

“Listen to me. Half of her is Asian because she comes from India and the other half is Jamaican,” Jenkins said as they sat together in Glendale, Ariz. She asked if Pierce, 69, had seen pictures of Harris’s Black father.

Pierce shook her head.

“You know what? I don’t even care,” said Jenkins, 73. “It doesn’t matter because I don’t care about people, I care about policy.”

Meryl Kornfield in Glendale, Ariz., contributed to this report.

The Republican Party has largely refashioned itself in former president Donald Trump’s image in the past five years, with downballot candidates jockeying for his endorsement, hugging him tightly on the campaign trail and embracing his policy initiatives.

But many of these same candidates running for the Senate have not replicated the former president’s performance in the polls as Election Day approaches, a gap that is raising concerns among Republican campaigns and fundraisers who fear their candidates are running out of time to win over voters they should already have in hand.

The Senate map this year still heavily favors Republicans, with all of the most competitive races for seats held by Democrats, and polling suggests they are on track to flip the Senate red. But Republicans in seven of the eight key Senate races appear to be trailing Trump, and only one GOP Senate candidate — Montana Republican Tim Sheehy — consistently leads his Democratic opponent, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), making control of the Senate more up in the air than might have been predicted.

In the House, where Republicans hold a slim four-seat majority and control of the chamber will be hotly contested in November, the phenomenon of GOP candidates trailing Trump appears less pronounced and less likely to affect the outcome. Fewer voters appear willing to split their tickets and more Republicans than Democrats represent districts won by the opposite party’s president in 2020. House Republicans are defending 16 seats in districts Joe Biden won in 2020, while House Democrats are defending just five seats Trump won.

In red Ohio, where Trump has a nine percentage point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican Bernie Moreno trailed Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown by four percentage points in an AARP poll. And in Nevada, Republican Sam Brown, a decorated military veteran, trailed first-term Sen. Jacky Rosen by 14 percentage points in a Fox News poll, even as Trump was within two percentage points of Harris.

Theories from political strategists as to why the candidates are underperforming Trump range from the candidates’ cash disadvantages, to Trump’s unmatched name ID among Republican voters to — in Democrats’ view — flaws with the candidates themselves.

Outspent

Democrats appear in grave danger of losing their 51-49 majority in the Senate, given that Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) is retiring and his seat will almost certainly flip to red. The Cook Political Report this week also shifted its ranking of the Montana Senate race from “toss-up” to “lean Republican.”

But Democrats running for the Senate and groups supporting them are outspending Republicans by a total of more than $200 million, including past spending and future reservations, in Montana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Maryland and Nevada — six of the eight key Senate races. The GOP has the spending edge only in Pennsylvania and Ohio, where they’re outspending Democrats by $41 million, according to data from the AdImpact tracking firm.

“We are on track to flip the Senate, but Senate Democrats’ massive cash advantage is a real problem,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Jason Thielman said in a statement. “The biggest thing preventing Senate Republicans from having a great night in November is the cash crunch we currently face.”

On Tuesday, NRSC Chairman Steve Daines, the senator from Montana, urged his colleagues during a closed-door lunch to transfer campaign money to boost struggling GOP candidates. “I’m concerned about the financial gap,” Daines said before the meeting, mentioning that Harris recently transferred millions to Senate Democrats, which has gone unmatched by Trump.

Earlier this month, Harris announced a $25 million transfer to the committees that manage Democratic House and Senate candidates’ campaigns and other groups.

“Every race this November matters,” Harris Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement, citing the need for a congressional majority to enact Harris’s agenda.

At the Tuesday lunch, NRSC leadership told Senate Republicans they could lose winnable races due to a lack of funding as their candidates face a barrage of negative advertising.

“A lot of our candidates have been outgunned during the summertime, when tens of millions of dollars have been spent pounding on them,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) told The Post.

Democrats, however, are blaming the candidates themselves, who they are attacking in a battery of ads for past business connections to China, their past statements opposing abortion rights and other issues.

“Senate Republicans have a roster of deeply flawed recruits — their lies, scandals and baggage are repelling voters of every political persuasion, including many Republicans,” said David Bergstein, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director, in a statement.

Name recognition

Most of the GOP Senate candidates are trying to unseat Democratic incumbents who are well-known in their states, which makes their paths to victory harder, especially in a busy presidential election year when many voters are not paying attention to downballot races. The Republicans must both introduce themselves to voters and make the case against a well-known sitting senator.

Trump has complained about the Democratic Senate incumbents’ strong performance.

“These people are in Washington for so long and many of them are no good but they are hard to beat, they’re hard to beat,” he said at a rally earlier this month in Wisconsin, referring to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who is leading GOP challenger Eric Hovde in public polls.

But even in states with open seats, like Arizona and Michigan, where the Democratic candidates are not better known, polls show the Republican candidates are trailing them — and underperforming Trump. Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor, has consistently polled behind Trump and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), despite almost universal name recognition. And in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R) generally lags behind Trump — and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D).

“A lot of their candidates push themselves as warmed-over Trump,” said JB Poersch, the president of Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic SuperPAC that is spending millions in these races. “None of them run from Trump … It doesn’t always play well.”

Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is bucking the trend in deep-blue Maryland, where he’s outperforming Trump by double digits as he stresses his moderate credentials. He’s running neck-and-neck with Democrat Angela Alsobrooks in the Senate race, according to a recent AARP poll.

Crossover voters

Both Republican and Democratic strategists agree the Senate races will tighten as Republicans and GOP-leaning voters start to come around to supporting the GOP Senate candidate in each state. But polls show Democratic candidates are attracting more crossover voters than Republican ones, and are also leading with independents.

Brown, the Democrat who has represented Ohio in the Senate since 2007, had the support of 14 percent of Republicans and led among independents by 12 percentage points in the AARP poll. Moreno, his GOP opponent and a former car dealer, had support of just 2 percent of Democrats.

The Republican Senate candidates need to win over independents and undecided voters before November, in part because in many cases they are not as “defined” as their Democratic opponents, who have been running ads for months, said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster.

“They have work to do between now and when people start voting,” Bolger said.

Even in the case of Montana, where Sheehy has a healthy lead over Tester in a recent AARP poll, the GOP businessman is losing independents by 3 percentage points to Tester. Trump, on the other hand, leads Harris among independent voters there by 9 percentage points. Trump has also consolidated 95 percent of Republicans behind him, while just 82 percent of Republicans said in the poll they’re definitely voting for Sheehy. Seven percent of Republicans said they would vote for Tester.

The Trump campaign said his performance will lift downballot candidates in November.

“President Trump has unified the Republican Party like never before and also broadened the coalition with independents and Democrats, crossing partisan lines,” Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “President Trump’s movement and his broad base of support will undoubtedly help candidates up and down the ballot.”

But when it comes to Republicans taking back the majority, it doesn’t matter whether Sheehy runs with or behind Trump, so long as he defeats Tester. “Tim Sheehy, he’s doing well,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. “So downballot I’m feeling reasonably comfortable, at least for the Senate races.”

Former president Donald Trump took his bitterness over mega-pop star Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to his social network, declaring in an all-caps tweet on Truth Social on Sunday, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”

The post did not mention Swift’s endorsement following Tuesday’s presidential debate, but Trump’s comment risks angering Swift’s legions of fans.

Within 15 hours of her endorsement of Harris, Swift’s much-anticipated announcement drove about 338,000 visits to Vote.gov, the federal voter registration site the singer linked to on an Instagram Story post. It is unclear how many of her fans registered to vote.

Swift broke her silence on the presidential election minutes after the end of Tuesday’s widely watched debate between Trump and Harris, with Harris the victor in most polls. Swift announced that she planned to vote for the vice president in a lengthy Instagram post signed, “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” a reference to past comments by Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), that the country was led by a “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” The comments have reverberated with bipartisan backlash for weeks.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in a post to 284 million followers.

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,” Swift wrote. “If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most. As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”

Appearing the next morning on Fox News, Trump said he was not surprised by the endorsement because “she seems to always endorse a Democrat.” He predicted that Swift would “probably pay a price for it in the marketplace,” and said that he preferred Brittany Mahomes, a fitness entrepreneur who is married to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, also plays for the Chiefs, and the women are friends. Brittany Mahomes had “liked” a post on Instagram regarding the 2024 Republican platform.

Swift, 34, one of the world’s most popular musical artists, endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. She was born in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, asked to comment on the former president’s post, responded with a link to the results of an ABC-IPSOS poll that the campaign had tweeted Sunday morning. It found that 81 percent of adults polled said Swift’s endorsement made no difference to them, while 13 percent said they were less likely to endorse Harris because of it, and 6 percent were more likely. Those responding negatively were overwhelmingly Trump supporters, according to the poll.

That same poll showed that Harris had a slight lead over Trump in the election, but that a large margin said Harris won the debate.

As Trump’s post reverberated around the internet on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded with a tweet: “Cats! Dogs! Geese! Laura Loomer! Look, now he’s attacking Taylor!” a reference to false claims by Trump and Vance that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating their neighbors’ pets and to the former president’s association with a far-right provocateur who has made racist statements.

A spokeswoman for Swift did not respond to a request for comment.

Swift has long supported liberal causes, including LGBTQ+ rights and gun control, and has condemned racial injustice. During the 2018 midterm election season, she endorsed two Democratic candidates in her current home state of Tennessee, saying she was appalled by Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and the Violence Against Women Act, which addresses domestic violence and stalking.

A week after his unsubstantiated comments on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, sparked a national firestorm and spurred violent threats in the small town, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) doubled down on his baseless claims that Haitians are eating their neighbors’ pets “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies.”

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, rejected Vance’s claims, calling the storyline “a piece of garbage that was simply not true.”

In a contentious interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday morning, Vance said that if he has to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

Donald Trump’s running mate has repeatedly claimed that the media was not paying attention to problems in Springfield until he spread the false rumor and his allies started making racist memes about Haitians eating pets in the small town. But the New York Times published an in-depth piece on Springfield days before Vance raised his baseless allegations in a social media post that said people “have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”

Trump repeated the claims Tuesday during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, even as the latest allegations about Springfield have been debunked at the local and state level, spurred violent threats against local Haitians — who are in the United States legally — and led to bomb threats that temporarily closed City Hall and schools. But despite those fact checks from local officials, Vance stuck to his claims and said he was simply passing along the concerns of his constituents.

But when Bash noted that Vance “just said you’re creating this story,” the senator quickly attempted to clarify his position.

“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” he said. “I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Her policies did that.”

Harris is not directly responsible for Haitian immigration to Springfield. They arrived after being admitted to the United States legally under a program that grants them temporary protected status due to the violence and chaos in their home country.

“But yes,” Vance continued, “we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’s policies.”

Last week, the mayor of Springfield said that a bomb threat Thursday that led to the evacuation of City Hall and other buildings “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.” More bomb threats and evacuations followed on Friday.

On Saturday, when reporters asked Trump about them, he said he didn’t know what had happened with the bomb threats, but he asserted that the city was being “taken over” by migrants, even though most of the Haitians are here on legal visas. “Springfield was this beautiful town, and now they’re going through hell. It’s a sad thing. Not going to happen with me,” Trump told reporters.

If elected, Trump said Friday, he would effect “large deportations in Springfield. We’re going to get these people out,” and then indicated he would send Haitians to Venezuela. He baselessly inflated the number of migrants living there and accused them of destroying the town.

When Bash asked Vance on Sunday about the threats to Springfield, he countered that the CNN anchor “just accused me of inciting violence against the community when all that I’ve done is surface the complaints of my constituents, people who are suffering because of Kamala Harris’s policies. Are we not allowed to talk about these problems because some psychopaths are threatening violence? We can condemn the violence on the one hand, but also talk about the terrible consequences of Kamala Harris’s open border, on the other hand.”

Vance’s comments lie in sharp contrast to those made by DeWine, a fellow Republican who said Sunday that “the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal” and that “they came to Springfield to work,” praising their arrival as aiding “a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in.”

DeWine said the companies have said “they are very good workers. They’re very happy to have them there. And frankly, that’s helped the economy.”

The governor allowed that the influx of an estimated 15,000 Haitians to a town of 58,000 created strains on municipal services that require more federal assistance. “Now, are there problems connected? Well, sure,” he said. “And we’re addressing those. We’re working on those every single day.”

But DeWine also decried the threats that have come to Springfield since Vance and Trump zeroed in on the town as a campaign talking point, including white nationalist groups hoping to capitalize on racial animus. “There are hate groups coming into Springfield,” DeWine said. “We don’t need these hate groups.”

But as much as DeWine condemned the false claims about Haitians in Springfield, he stopped short of criticizing Trump and Vance for spreading those claims, saying that the problems on the border are “legitimate” and ones where “the vast majority” of the American people “agree with Donald Trump.” But, he concluded, “what’s going on in Springfield is just fundamentally different. These people are here legally. They came to work. They are looking for good people. These are hardworking people.”

A representative for Vance had no immediate comment about DeWine’s rejection of the claims.

Late last week, the woman who penned a Facebook post claiming she had heard about Haitians eating pets said she had no direct knowledge of such an incident and regrets her role in spreading rumors about it.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday. Lee’s original post claimed a neighbor’s cat had gone missing and that the neighbor believed the cat had been attacked by her Haitian neighbors.

But media and fact-checking watchdog NewsGuard interviewed both Lee and her neighbor, Kimberly Newton, and found that Lee had misstated her friend’s original story in her Facebook post, which she has since deleted.

Newton, who was not interviewed by NBC, said she heard about the purported attack from a third party, and had not witnessed it directly, NewsGuard reported.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Sunday that Vance “should know better” than continuing to spread baseless claims. He said there is a “causal connection” between Vance’s spreading of the rumors and “the safety and security of the American people” — referencing the bomb threats in Springfield that came after Trump repeated the false allegations on the debate stage.

“He just doesn’t understand the power of his words, the power of his lies,” Shapiro said on CNN. “Those lies are putting people at risk.”

On Friday, President Joe Biden demanded that the attacks on the Haitian community in Springfield stop. “I want to take a moment to say something [about the] Haitian American community that’s under attack in our country right now,” Biden said during a White House event celebrating Black excellence. “It’s simply wrong. There’s no place in America. This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop!”

Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.

Former president Donald Trump was uninjured after an individual opened fire at his golf course in Florida on Sunday, the Trump campaign said in a statement.

“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity. No further details at this time,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman.

Trump later said in a statement: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I am safe and well!”

According to two people briefed on the incident, the former president was golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach early Sunday afternoon when agents heard gunshots. He was taken away to a holding room at the club.

The Secret Service has long been concerned about Trump’s vulnerability on his golf courses, which remain open to parts of the public and are often near heavily trafficked areas.

No one was believed to have been hit by the shots, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss what transpired.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. The Secret Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office are jointly investigating the shooting and “will have more details soon,” Guglielmi said on X. He repeated that Trump “is safe.”

According to a Secret Service official briefed on the matter, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detained a suspect on Florida’s Interstate 95 after he appeared to flee the scene on foot.

Palm Beach County sheriff’s officers blocked off more than a half-dozen intersections surrounding Trump International on Sunday afternoon. The property is just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago, but it is in a more urban setting than the club in Palm Beach. The Palm Beach County Jail looks down on Trump International from the north, and across the street is the county’s main library and a U.S. Postal Service distribution center.

The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed about the incident. The two are “relieved to know that he is safe,” the White House said, and they will be updated on the case.

Lori Rozsa in Florida contributed to this report.