Bomb scares at elementary schools. A police dog checking the bushes outside City Hall. Threats against local officials.scatter365

It has been a chilling couple of weeks for Springfield, Ohio, since former President Donald J. Trump pulled the city into the presidential race with baseless claims that Haitian immigrants there were abducting and eating household pets.

And trying to hold the city together has been Mayor Rob Rue, who took office not even a year ago, taking on a part-time post that has been anything but that over the last several days.

He’s made several appearances on cable news. He’s been meeting with Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow native son of Springfield. He’s sought to reassure the thousands of Haitian immigrants in the city that they are welcome and safe.

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And he’s urged his fellow Republican, Mr. Trump, not to come to Springfield right now, saying such a visit would only heighten tensions.

“This job as mayor was never supposed to have this type of intensity,” Mayor Rue, 54, said in a telephone interview on Friday. “But when you sign up to serve a city, you never know what’s coming.”

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