Wisconsin Republicans react to Donald Trump calling Milwaukee “horrible”

Wisconsin Republicans reacted to former President Donald Trump reportedly calling Milwaukee “a horrible city” during a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

Trump visited the U.S. Capitol for the first time since his supporters sieged the building on January 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to halt certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. The ex-president met with GOP lawmakers as a precursor to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee—set for July 15 to July 18—where Trump is expected to be chosen as the party’s nominee.

Jake Sherman, founder of Punchbowl News who covers the Hill, reported on X, formerly Twitter, that Trump told House Republicans on Thursday, “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.”

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to Sherman’s reporting to X on Thursday, writing, “Wrong. Total bull****. He never said it like how it’s been falsely characterized as. He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are.”

Newsweek reached out to Cheung via email for comment on Thursday.

House Republicans from Wisconsin defended Trump but shared different interpretations of the former president’s comment.

“Another classic example of s****y reporting by a Democratic Party shill pretending to be a journalist. Lies busy omission. @realDonaldTrump was specifically referring to the crime the CRIME RATE in Milwaukee,” Representative Derrick Van Orden wrote on X.

Van Orden included a photo of a Spectrum News article titled, “Milwaukee ranks third for violent crimes nationwide,” from May 2023.

Sherman shared an April article from Wisconsin Public Radio titled, “Homicides in Milwaukee down nearly 50 percent compared to 2 years ago.”

Some said that Trump was referring to election integrity. After Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he claimed that the election was rigged against him. Biden won Wisconsin by a slim 0.7 percent margin, and there is no evidence to suggest there was election fraud in Wisconsin or any widespread fraud in 2020.

Representative Scott Fitzgerald told Matt Smith, political director of WISN, a Milwaukee ABC affiliate, that Trump’s comment was delivered after a question posed to him about election integrity: “What he was talking about was the elections in Milwaukee. They’re concerned about them.”

Lawrence Andrea, Washington correspondent for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said on X that Representative Glenn Grothman told him that Trump was “concerned about the election in MKE” and “felt we need to do better in urban centers around the country.”

Representative Bryan Steil said on X: “I was in the room. President Trump did not say this. There is no better place than Wisconsin in July.”

Steil told Smith, “He wasn’t talking about the city. He was talking about specific issues in the city,” before the congressman listed issues such as crime and the public school system but would not say which issues Trump mentioned, according to the clip Smith shared on X.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, told reporters on Thursday, “Donald Trump wants to talk about things that he thinks are horrible, all of us lived through his presidency, so right back at ya, buddy.”

Johnson called Trump “unhinged” for making the comment and said he was “wrong” about Milwaukee.

Biden seized the chance to score some points with Wisconsinites, posting to X on Thursday, “I happen to love Milwaukee,” to which Johnson replied, “Milwaukee loves you back, President Joe Biden!”