Trump-Milwaukee Feud: Trump Denies He’s Staying In Chicago For RNC—After Allegedly Calling Milwaukee ‘Horrible’

 

A local ABC station and The New York Times reported Tuesday the former president had plans to stay at Trump Tower in Chicago and commute to Milwaukee, where the GOP convention is being held.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign pushed back on multiple media reports Tuesday that he initially planned on staying in Chicago and commuting to Milwaukee next month for the Republican National Convention—denying plans to snub Milwaukee, after a week-long flap over reports Trump called the biggest city in crucial swing state Wisconsin “horrible.”

KEY FACTS

The New York Times and Chicago TV affiliate ABC7 reported on Tuesday Trump would be staying at Trump Tower in Chicago and commuting about 90 miles north to host city Milwaukee for the July convention, raising eyebrows after Trump reportedly called Milwaukee a “horrible city” in a closed-door meeting with lawmakers last week.

The Times reported three unnamed sources initially said Trump would stay in Chicago instead of Milwaukee, but after reporters inquired about the plan Tuesday, two sources said his plans changed and he would stay in the host city instead.

Brian Hopkins, a Chicago alderman who chairs the city’s public safety committee, told ABC7 officials had “solid indications” Trump was planning to stay in Chicago during the convention, but he wasn’t surprised the plans changed because “it looked pretty bad to not be staying in Wisconsin.”

Steven Cheung, spokesperson for the Trump campaign, told Forbes in a statement, “President Trump was always planning on staying in Milwaukee and any reports stating otherwise is fake news.”

KEY BACKGROUND

The GOP convention is scheduled to take place in Milwaukee from July 15-18, and Trump is expected to accept the party’s nomination to run for president while there. When he was in Washington, D.C., last week, however, Trump reportedly said Milwaukee was a “horrible city” in a private meeting with congressional Republicans. A number of lawmakers offered varying accounts of why he said it, ranging from denying the remark to saying he was referring to the city’s crime rate. Cheung said the reports were “total bulls**t” and that Trump was actually “talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are.” Wisconsin will be a key battleground state in the November election: It voted 49.4% for Biden and 48.8% for Trump in 2020, but four years earlier, the state helped get Trump to the White House, voting 47.9% for him and 46.9% for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

TANGENT

Trump held a rally in Racine, Wisconsin—which is about 30 miles from Milwaukee—on Tuesday afternoon, marking his third Wisconsin rally of the year. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Trump began his speech by saying “I love Milwaukee,” and went on to claim he “did much better” in 2020 in Wisconsin than the prior election. Trump received more votes in 2020, but lost the state to Biden while he won Wisconsin in 2016.