WASHINGTON ― Politics can often be a dog-eat-dog world, but this campaign season has truly gone to the cats.
The cat-crazed 2024 election reached a fever pitch Tuesday night when, during his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump repeated a baseless and racist claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets, including their cats.
“The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said, as Harris ― along with much of the U.S., collectively ― shook her head in disbelief.
Then, moments after the debate ended, one of the world’s most famous cat ladies, pop megastar Taylor Swift, broke her silence on the presidential race and offered an endorsement of Harris. “With love and hope, Taylor Swift[,] Childless Cat Lady,” Swift wrote on Instagram below an iconic photo with one of her cats, a fluffy ragdoll named Benjamin Button.
If recent election cycles were defined by dogs — whether by Trump calling someone a “dog” or Mitt Romney’s actual dog riding on the roof of the family car — the 2024 election, defined by an historic woman atop the Democratic ticket, is decidedly more feline.
“Cats have never gotten their credit, and it’s part of what’s going on now with all the cat stuff online and the ‘cat ladies,’” said Paul Koudounaris, the author of “A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History,” which is narrated by his cat Baba.
“Human beings have always gendered domestic animals, and cats have always been gendered feminine, whereas dogs have always been considered the masculine animal,” he said, adding, “I think that’s a lot of what’s going on now with this weird cat humor surrounding the election.”
Trump often uses “like a dog” to denigrate adversaries (many of them women), and eight years ago, he compared his then-opponent, Hillary Clinton, to a barking dog. In Trump’s second matchup against a woman, cats have become the go-to animal for dehumanizing rhetoric, with Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, widely panned on the left for resurfaced 2021 remarks calling Harris and other liberal women without kids “childless cat ladies.” (Harris, for what it’s worth, is a stepmother and does not own a cat.)
“Every presidential cycle there seems to be something that pops — you know, [like] Joe the Plumber,” observed Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a self-identified “childless cat person,” referring to the Ohio everyman who questioned then-candidate Barack Obama about the economy in 2008.
“This year, it’s interesting that it is cats,” he added, “but I think it does highlight the absurdity of the Republican nominees that they seem to be bringing cats into the forefront. And, especially what you saw with Taylor Swift yesterday, I was surprised at how many people [there are] who fit my demographic.”
Booker also said: “I think this is the purrfect question and the ways that cats are appearing I find very clawsome. Fantastic. No, cat-tastic.”
Just as the fury over “childless cat ladies” began to die down this month, feline memes roared anew this week after Vance amplified baseless reports from the cesspools of far-right web culture that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, a small town outside Dayton that’s been grappling with a surge of migrants.
The idea that Trump is the only thing standing between house cats and barbecues has spawned some truly cursed AI images of the former president, who famously does not like animals, embracing a menagerie of doe-eyed kittens and geese.
Though there is zero credible evidence for the Springfield smear (even Vance admitted in a tweet that it was just a rumor, but encouraged “fellow patriots” to “keep the cat memes flowing”), Trump cited it as fact during the debate — and Harris was barely able to contain her apparent delight.
“What? This is unbelievable,” Harris reportedly said while her mic was muted.
The wave of cat content kicked off not long after Trump chose Vance as a running mate, when a clip of Vance on Fox News circa his U.S. Senate campaign lamenting that “childless cat ladies” were running the country began making the rounds again. The controversy over the remarks, among other things the Ohio senator has said about people without kids, has been a cat-astrophe for Vance’s approval rating.
It’s part of a pattern of the right’s sexist rhetoric this election cycle, which has in recent months been defined by a Black and Indian American woman leading the Democratic ticket. The right has been all about Trump and Vance’s masculinity; the GOP convention featured retired pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan ripping off his shirt and remarks from Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White.
“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” Elon Musk, the increasingly right-wing owner of X, wrote on his social media site after Swift’s endorsement of Harris, in a post that was swiftly panned as creepy. Musk has 12 children with three women and does not appear to have a personal relationship with Swift.
In fairness, President Joe Biden has also invoked felines to knock Trump. During their June debate, he said Trump ― who has been found liable for sexual abuse and, separately, found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up allegedly sleeping with a porn star while his wife was pregnant with their youngest son ― had “the morals of an alley cat.” The Biden-ism was lost on some Gen Z-ers, who felt Biden was talking badly about cats.
Cats, for better or worse, are having a moment. But Koudounaris, the “Cat’s Tale” author, said it’s unfortunate that cats haven’t gotten their due throughout history.
“The biggest cat is actually the most dangerous animal,” Koudounaris said. “They’re way more dangerous than any dog.”