Surrogates for former President Donald Trump held a town hall on Milwaukee’s lower east side Thursday night in which they framed the November election in existential terms and urged supporters to turn out the vote.

The visit came just hours after President Joe Biden spoke to supporters in the western Wisconsin town of Westby in his first visit to the state since he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in late July.

The town hall is part of the “Team Trump Agenda 47 Policy Tour.” The tour coincides with Trump’s efforts to distance himself from Project 2025, a conservative blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation, even as Democrats continue to point out his connections to the plan.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Janesville Republican, told those gathered at the Jan Serr Studio in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Kenilworth Square East building that the election is an opportunity to “get our country back on track.”

“The final piece of this is we only win if we show up and vote,” he told the 100 or so people gathered. He added that the fast-approaching election will be decided by a narrow margin.

Both the Trump and Harris campaigns have been crisscrossing the state with just two months until the November election. The latest Marquette University Law School poll found Trump and Harris in a statistical dead heat in Wisconsin, a critical swing state that Trump won in 2016 and lost in 2020.

The panel was moderated by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who was joined on stage by Steil, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and former Trump administration official and conservative commentator Monica Crowley, a contributor to Project 2025.

Before the town hall kicked off, dozens of protesters gathered on Prospect Avenue outside with a larger-than-life puppet of Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Their chants included, “JD Vance you can’t hide, Stop Project 2025” and a slogan from Harris’s campaign, “When we fight, we win.”

Tracy Washington, a Power to the Polls canvasser, was quick with an answer when asked what she wanted town hall attendees to take away from the protest: “I want them to take away (Project) 2025,” she said.

“Project 2025, as you know, is an attack on seniors — our health and security,” said Pat Dunn, 79, of the League of Progressive Seniors. “Now, I want you to help me understand why I got to be this old, and now they want to attack my Social Security, my health and security.”

Project 2025 is billed as a “menu of solutions to the border crisis, inflation, a stagnant economy, and rampant crime” that “dismantles the unaccountable Deep State, taking power away from Leftist elites and giving it back to the American people and duly-elected President.”

The policy blueprint calls for replacing civil service government employees with partisan appointees and eliminating the Department of Education, among other proposals.

Similar town halls are taking place across battleground states and focus on issues like the economy, the border crisis and “ending the threat of World War III,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement.

Trump’s campaign billed the Agenda 47 Tour as the “the most extensive surrogate operation in the history of presidential politics” and said it would “enlist some of the most prominent figures in politics, influential celebrities, and a diverse array of everyday Americans across key battleground states to champion President Trump and his Agenda 47 initiative.”

Agenda 47 is Trump’s official campaign platform.

On Thursday evening, the topics ranged from the economy to the opioid epidemic to illegal immigration to “weaponized government” agencies.

The speakers also rallied the crowd, impressing upon those gathered the importance of winning Wisconsin on the road to winning the White House.

Thompson urged Republicans to go to places that aren’t “safe” for them, like college campuses, the Democratic stronghold of Madison and Black churches.

“Ask the people, what do they want? They want our agenda,” he said, adding that Harris is “trying to copy it.”

What wasn’t mentioned during the panel discussion was Project 2025. Only when a reporter asked about it afterward did speakers mention the proposal, saying the event and Trump had nothing to do with it.

“He’s disavowed Project 2025. That’s not his set of his policies. It’s just like any one of a number of think tanks around,” Burgum said afterward. “So I think it’s a complete red herring.”

He added that Project 2025 is “not relevant.”

While Trump has tried to distance himself from it, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that he knows “nothing about Project 2025,” a July USA TODAY analysis found that at least 31 of the project’s 38 creators had connections with Trump’s administration.

Crowley pushed back on Democrats’ tagging the Trump campaign with Project 2025.

“I just want to clarify, when the project got started in the early days, they contacted me to make a few contributions on the Treasury Department piece of it. So I was literally involved for maybe three weeks, and that was the end of it,” Crowley said. 

She stressed that the Trump has “absolutely nothing to do” with Project 2025. 

“The official Trump platform for policy for his second term is Agenda 47,” Crowley said.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com. Mary Spicuzza can be reached at mary.spicuzza@jrn.com.

Activists and the sister of the man killed by out-of-state police during the Republican National Convention criticized the officers and the Milwaukee police’s messaging of security plans at a public meeting on Thursday night.

Angelique Sharpe — whose brother Samuel Sharpe Jr. died on June 16 during the second day of the convention — spoke at a meeting of the city’s Fire and Police Commission, the oversight body for the city’s police and fire departments. She joined with activists to criticize the Milwaukee Police Department and the Columbus, Ohio officers involved in the shooting.

“My brother’s life will not be in vain. People are going to be held accountable,” Sharpe said to the commission during public comments. “This whole situation needs to be properly investigated and looked at holistically and systemic change needs to happen.”

Columbus, Ohio police shot and killed Sam Sharpe as he wielded two knives and moved toward another man, bodycam footage shows. The situation happened rapidly, with about 15 seconds passing between when officers first saw Sharpe and opening fire.

Sharpe’s family has said at memorials and other events he was acting in self-defense. They’ve described him as a strongly devout man who chose to become unsheltered in an attempt to spread his faith.

Activists and his sister have criticized what they described as a lack of de-escalation attempts, the number of shots fired and the lack of local police officers with the group of Ohio officers.

Miriam Horowitz, the chair of the Fire and Police Commission, asked Norman to elaborate on why the Columbus, Ohio officers were at the park and for issues around communication of out-of-town officers’ roles.

A Milwaukee police official told the Journal Sentinel before the convention that out-of-town officers would be placed in non-“forward facing” roles.

“Our intent is to place them in positions where they’re not necessarily forward facing,” Milwaukee Police Inspector David Feldmeier said at the time. “We would like our officers, our MPD officers, to be the ones to have contact with the community.”

Norman said he was limited in what he could say, due to the ongoing investigation into the shooting, but said he didn’t know how the “message got out there” that the non-Milwaukee officers would not engage with the community, but said it was intended they would not be in any “critical areas.”

He conceded the officers should’ve been accompanied by a Milwaukee police officer.

“If we were having officers in certain roles that would have to have a navigation of the lay of the land, we should have had an officer with those officers,” he said. “So, there’s been no lack of accountability or standing forth in regard to owning that.”

Norman said he would be able to talk further on the shooting once the investigation is complete. The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team, led by the Greenfield Police Department, is investigating the fatal shooting.

Activists from the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression spoke in support of Sharpe during the meeting. The group lobbed harsh criticisms at Norman and noted their early reservations at having out-of-town police involved in the Republican National Convention.

Cavalier Johnson’s RNC Day 3 morning briefing includes fatal shooting

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s RNC Day 3 morning briefing included details on the fatal police shooting of a Milwaukee man.

Advertisement

They were critical of Norman and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s comments after the shooting that the officers had saved a life.

“I’m also here in utter disgust and disappointment with the Milwaukee Police Department,” Lo Cross said. “Saying that you saved a life when that wasn’t even the original purpose of Columbus police being in that area anyways is downright flagrant and disrespectful.”

During the meeting, Sharpe and Norman spoke in city hall for about 10 minutes. Sharpe said the police chief gave his condolences to her again for her brother’s death and she told him of her frustrations of attempting to communicate with the department for updates on the investigation.

Sharpe said she appreciated the chief’s willingness to express his condolences and willingness to say a Milwaukee officer should have been with the Ohio police.

Sharpe said the shooting of her brother has been limited in its telling, with many only focusing on the moment he died and not what led up to it in the days prior. During her public comment, Sharpe said her brother had called them the day before to tell them of a confrontation he had with the other man in the incident.

“My brother he had a whole life. He had a whole story,” Sharpe said outside of the meeting chambers.

MILWAUKEE — With training camp now officially less than a month away, Milwaukee Bucks basketball is almost ready to resume.

Heading into camp, it’s easy to assume that the top portion of Milwaukee’s rotation is already established. It feels more than likely that Damian Lillard, Gary Trent Jr., Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez will make up the starting five. Off the bench, it’s expected that Bobby Portis and offseason acquisitions Delon Wight and Taurean Prince will get a bulk of the reserve minutes in coach Doc Rivers’ rotation.

With the top eight players basically set in stone, there’s no huge camp battles that will determine starting spots or even signficant minutes off the bench this season. However, there still remains some battles that could impact the Bucks’ rotation and or roster for the forseeable future.

With all that said, let’s take a peak at the biggest training camp battles that the Milwaukee Bucks will have to key in on.

Heading into this season, it feels like AJ Green, AndreJackson Jr. or Pat Connaughton will get a bulk of the reserve minutes from the guard spot, and the other two will spend more of their time as spectators at the end of the bench.

Each of the three have cases as to why they should pull ahead of the others. Green showed he was able to build off a solid rookie campaign by remaining an elite three-point threat and showing improvement on the defensive end.

Jackson showed in little spurts that he can make an impact as a jack of all trades type player. And 2021 NBA champion Pat Connaughton is an experienced veteran who has shown he can be reliable in big-time moments.

As of now, it’s clear that Rivers remains high on Green. Last season, when Rivers took over as head coach during the middle of the season, Green saw a nice uptick in minutes. The Bucks also held him out of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which only further shows that they believe in Green’s development. That alone seems to give Green the edge over Jackson Jr., and it may just help him overtake Connaughton, who’s a potential trade candidate after having his own struggles over the past two seasons.

Next month’s training camp will prove pivotal for the entire trio of guards, with a pair of them looking to prove why they belong in the NBA and the other looking to showcase that he still has enough left in the tank to make a serious impact for a contender.

Throughout the years, players in their third NBA season often make a big jump. After struggling to make his mark during his first two seasons in Milwaukee, MarJon Beauchamp’s third go-round will be pivotal in determining if he has an NBA future.

Beauchamp played in the Summer League, which is something a rarity for a third-year player. During his time spent in the Summer League, Beauchamp didn’t showcase much of an improved skillset compared to last season. Much like his first two seasons, he showed little flashes of his athleticism and shot-making, but he also turned the ball over numerous times and showed poor shot-selection.

In a true make-or-break year, Beauchamp must enter camp with a chip on his shoulder. The guard needs to prove his worth by dominating in drills and show that he can be a reliable asset when going up against the veteran in scrimmages. If he can do that, then he could potentially earn some trust with the coaching staff, which is something he rarely was able to do last season.

Even so, it will be an uphill battle for Beauchamp to crack the rotation and move ahead o Green, Jackson Jr. and Connaughton, who are all fighting for their own respective spots in the depth chart. Time is running out for the former 24th overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft and so it won’t be easy. Beauchamp has to do whatever he’s asked in order to prove he provides value.

Being that both AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith are a pair of unpolished raw 19-year-olds, nobody should expect them to play considerable roles during their rookie campaigns. In fact, it would be surprising if they got any substantial minutes at all this season outside of garbage time.

Despite being expected to see limited court time, the two rookies will still want to come into camp hungry to showcase their abilities against a talented core of veterans.

The Bucks have been one of the oldest teams in the NBA over the last handful of seasons, including being named the oldest team in 2023-24, and it was exposed in the playoffs last season going against a young high-paced Indiana Pacers squad. A lack of youth and athleticism hurt this team when going up against the younger, more energetic squads from a year ago. Perhaps Smith and Johnson can use that to their advantage as they try and make a good first impression with the organization that took a chance on them.

Johnson’s speed and quickness is arguably his biggest weapon and he showed flashes of it earlier this offseason in the Summer League. Trying to stay with Johnson and contain him will be a fitting test for a roster filled with NBA veterans. As for Smith, he’s an athletic 6-foot-11 forward with a nice shooting touch that could make for some interesting battles with interior defenders such as Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis.

As 19-year-old rookies, neither player will be able to dominate the veterans. But being that have all the physical tools, they will have the capability to test them in certain moments. At the end of the day, this battle will only help further develop the pair of rookies and will hopefully set them up to succeed when their names are called upon later down the line.