Letter to Nate Friedman

Nate Friedman is an independent journalist on YouTube, who is one of the hardest working and dedicated people out there. His shows are professional and include levels of research I can only dream of. His channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/@NateFriedman97

Note: Excuse my bullet list spacing if it's wonky. If I were younger, I would've tried a little longer.

Hi Nate,

....I’m in Springfield, Ohio (the most corrupt small(ish) town in America – ha). I LOVE your work and admire both your resolve and patience. I wish I had a tenth of your emotional maturity. I have, on a couple of occasions, used your comment section like it was a Live Chat, because I get so riled at the madness, but I’m trying to do better. 😊

Congratulations on Charlie Kirk and the President’s nod on Iran and your Follow the Money work!! The attention is very well-deserved.

I reached out to you over a month ago, so there’s a delay in my follow-through. I was trying to gather my thoughts. I think there are several things to note about the situation in Springfield, and I will list them here, but my conclusion at the end is that I’m not sure there’s much to report on right now. These are all TPS folks who are supposed to leave in August. The Mayor says they won’t interfere with federal processes (ICE), but we’ll see. He invoked his own imaginary emergency powers when Trump promised to visit us last fall.

• The town population is 58K pre-Haitian. By 2024, the estimate was that there are 20K of them here, increasing the population estimate to 70-80K. (They don’t keep much data here. It’s a big issue discussed in the Commission meetings. Data wouldn’t be favorable for the federal welfare this town insists on.)

• This is a town of everyday folks, I think the per capita income is 28K? The most recent City Commissioner, Tracey Tackett won with 62% of the vote, but really that was just 7,000 votes, because only 11, 000 people voted. The town gave up a long time ago. And it’s still true.The city has a Home Rule and Council Manager government. This means that the City Manager really runs everything. Mayor Copeland (in office until 2023) Rob Rue (who has run unopposed or been appointed to the Commission, the Asst Mayor role (in 2019) and the Mayor role (in 2023. The City Commission basically reports to the City Manager, as do all the city orgs – the police, the chamber of commerce, everything government run. This includes the newspaper here (actually owned by Cox), as you can imagine. They refer to his “600 employees” a lot.

• JD Vance tweeted about the animals being eaten here in September 2024, Trump mentioned the town in his September 2024 debate. The information is fact, the reality here is real, but every elected/appointed/City Manager-run source still refers to it as a hoax. The town was outraged. It was like being in an abusive relationship, when the abuser tells you you’re imagining things. They all us dangerous racists, but every citizen speaker has clearly focused the concern on the resources (lack) and cost (money).

• After the debate, Trump said he was going to visit the city. So, Governor DeWine called in imaginary bomb threats (a few weeks later he would say they came from a foreign country) so that Mayor Rue could invoke emergency powers (no authority to do this) to keep Trump out. Vivek came here to do a TownHall meeting instead, basically a photo opp because he wanted a spot on Trump’s admin.

• The Mayor and City Manager and Commission, but mostly Mayor Rue, has a visceral oral hatred for Trump. In the June 20th, 2025, Commission meeting, he said, “Trump just can’t keep our town out of his mouth”. No matter how a person feels about Trump, the Mayor is firing up this town about August.

• The Haitians are here under TPS. In 2014, the town passed a Proclamation/Resolution to classify the city as a “Welcoming” city – I’m new here, but intend to do some research on this supposed Soros org? ( https://welcomingamerica.org/ ), and less than a thousand came in the next 5 years. They say to get workers, but I’m one of those who believe it’s a population replacement plan, country-wide. The Commission thanks the city for supporting the 2017 2% city levy in 2017, just three years later. Somebody had to pay for all this welcoming. Then, Biden opened the floodgates, and 20,000 came. The TPS isn’t temporary, as we all know. The businesses received thousands per hired Haitian. The Cash App and new cars and new clothes have been more slaps in our faces. The Friday line at the Walmart send money home line has been around the building. But their status is supposed to end in August, when they should go back to Haiti.

• This was orchestrated by Governor DeWine and Senator Sherrod Brown, just like it was in all the other cities like us now.

• And every dime was spent on the 20K, so that our 2% levy and all city taxes go to them. The City Commission meetings of the last few months have been focused on the town being out of money and having no rainy-day fund (when they should be FLUSH with money). I assume they’re warning us that they will be increasing city and property taxes. They had a 9-year freeze on road repairs, and we were told last month that a lot had to be postponed again, because they don’t have the money.

• There is NGO money here that is obvious. Feeding America and the Catholic Charities here, and there are companies that have profited from hiring Haitians (they get thousands for each one employed). There are a few property owners who buy up all the somewhat run-down properties and turn them into apartments and house 10-20 Haitians charging each of them the rent the entire house would normally be. One of these property owners is the Mayor. He has a Rue Properties LLC, and that’s the only one he admits to George Ten. But the mere mention of the man’s name brings looks of ungodly fear and he’s not mentioned again.

• I have two stories of my own experience with Haitians in public places (but I stopped shopping in town last year). Ohio allows individuals who are legally permitted to own a firearm to carry a concealed handgun without a license, according to a law that went into effect in June 2022. The Haitians’ weapon of choice is the machete. There is a Haitian gang here.

• There is word that they are still being bused into the Love’s truck stop/gas station (the hot spot in 2020-2024), but I have no evidence of this, and I believe their Cash App doesn’t work now. But some do work at some plants in town, and friends tell friends, come to Springfield!

• The City Manager reported in the last few meetings that the town is on the brink of bankruptcy. But in the next sentence, he talks about how much revenue the Haitian influx has brought to the city. They used the American Rescue Act and Care Act funds on Haitians. The translators, the DMV, the emergency services, and medical facilities. Every dime they spent was on them. DeWine sent an emergency 2.5 million here during that bomb threat time, but it was all spent on teaching them to drive (big issue here) and one new urgent care for them, and translators. This was spun that it would help the citizens. DeWine’s Safety Director Andy Wilson spoke about all they had done for the Haitians in a March Commission meeting and they all gushed about it. (And now, they want more of the city’s citizens’ tax money.)

• The Mayor said that he can’t interfere with federal actions in August, but he is stoking the fires that the Haitians aren’t safe. He has operated from the stance that the citizens here are dangerous and repeats that at every meeting and public appearance.
  

So, August should be fun here. I have no doubt that the citizens will probably be reported in the news again as being dangerous, racist, etc. That Heck and Rue and the Commission and the Police Chief and the National Guard will be called in to protect the Haitians from the citizens. All for the theater. (We’re all working and don’t have a lot of time for protests nor energy for violence. LOL.)

All this to say that Springfield might not fit your effort.

• I don’t know of a hotel that is a migrant shelter. I believe they’re all in homes. There are no protests here anymore. There were none in Fall 2024, because the taxpaying citizens don’t typically have the time to protest, and we’d get shooed off by the cops anyway.
  
  

• There is no data collected on Haitian crime or traffic incidents (including those that cause fatalities). This is a mandate from the Governor, City Manager and Mayor – it would result in loss of federal money. And this town has very much been on federal welfare the last six years. The Assistant Mayor is already up in arms about 4 million being cut in 2025.
  

• There is no means of communication here. The Commission tells us nothing about what they’re doing, and we have three minutes to speak always banked by cops and under threat of being kicked out. There is only one cohesive Facebook group, but it’s under lock and key, because they’ve been threatened so much, they don’t allow join requests anymore.

I want the people who profited to be exposed and ruined. And I don’t have much faith in that either. We have 3 people leaving the Commission at the end of the year, and 3 new people who were hand-picked by the existing crew. One person on our side was deemed not ballot-worthy, as you can imagine. It really is no wonder that people don’t vote, communicate, or get involved. To me, it’s like 1920s Brooklyn or something – just run by a mafia.

I still want to do what you do when you follow the money, though!! There is a report of house sales that aren’t in Zillow (I just learned on my own – I had no idea), so I want to start looking at those “companies” buying up the houses. There is a Haitian Community Center here that says they are helped by a “couple of donors”. They, of course, have no 990 to check. And they are hot on the trail of legal assistance to transfer the TPSers to some other status, so they can stay.

I think this is my call at this point. To research, using your example.

I’d love to stay in touch with you come August, when I hope ICE comes here! Knowing, I guess that they’ll just be detained and released, if they stay.

I know this is entirely too much information about a city that doesn’t really fit the protest coverage right now, but I hope you’ll hand onto this and my contact information when we enter the national news again in the coming months.

Thank you again for all you do!! I’m an old mom, and I just want to hug your mother!!! 😊 😊