Prominent right-wing troll Christopher Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, claims that Haitian migrants are eating cats in Springfield, Ohio

Christopher Rufo offered $ 5,000 to anyone who could provide “hard, verifiable evidence that Haitian migrants are eating cats in Springfield , Ohio .

He didn't find any evidence, but shared an “ EXCLUSIVE ” video last week that showed African immigrants in Dayton barbecuing chicken.

The video was from 2023 , but it was really the high-water mark of an absurd and disgusting affair.

The Manhattan Institute is a conservative think tank co-founded in 1978 by Nixon administration alum William J. Casey .

The think tank has a history of pushing social scholarship that disproportionately targeted minority communities.

But it could at least make a plausible claim to some policy independence from the GOP .

Salam , the New Yorkborn son of Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants, had a reputation as a “reasonable” and “smart” conservative.

Salam had long curried liberal affection as “literary Brooklyn ’s favorite conservative” The Institute has drawn in millions of dollars in donations from firms familiar to those with knowledge of the right-money network: the Searle Family Trust , the Walton Family Foundation , the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Koch -backed DonorsTrust .