Republican National Convention Heads to Milwaukee

Although GOP front-runner Donald Trump and plenty of Wisconsin Republicans have criticized Milwaukee for years, the party is now preparing to descend on the town for the Republican National Convention, which can happen July 15-18. Despite calling the town “terrible” in June and surviving a recent assassination attempt, Trump has confirmed he’ll address the convention. The party intends to make Milwaukee its center by officially nominating Trump within the November election.

According to Trump, he has he also denied it that he said Milwaukee was a terrible city, selecting as a substitute to make clear that he was referring to crime statistics. “We are very concerned about crime. I love Milwaukee. I have great friends in Milwaukee. But, as you know, the crime statistics are terrible,” Trump said. “I also meant the election, the voting, the way it went. It was very bad in Milwaukee. Very, very bad.”

Even if we take Trump’s claim at face value, the second claim was ultimately overthrown by a firm his campaign hired to investigate alleged voter fraud within the 2020 election. The campaign’s efforts to prove voter fraud have focused on Milwaukee and Madison, two cities with overwhelmingly Democratic majorities. Trump’s first claim could possibly be reasonably seen as just one other in a protracted line of racist comments he has made, especially since Milwaukee is, according to Data USA majority minority city.

Senator LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat representing Milwaukee, said in an interview that Republicans, including Trump, they often select a city due to its layout“Republicans at all times give the impression that almost all – in the event that they think there’s fraud – within the system that comes from the town of Milwaukee, right? And the query is why? Because Milwaukee is a majority minority.

Cavalier Johnson, Milwaukee’s first black mayor elected by a Democrat, said in an interview that he found Trump’s comments about his city odd.

“What he said about Milwaukee being a terrible city is just one of many lies that the former president has come up with. When people come here, they’ll see that this is a great city,” Johnson said. “It’s also home to thousands of Republican voters who have called Milwaukee home for a long time, who have raised their children and grandchildren here, who are important members of our community. He called their home terrible. I thought that was a little odd on his part and just another lie in a long line.”

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schmming couldn’t help but criticize Milwaukee and other Democratic-run cities, telling The Associated Press that I hope the RNC highlighted the positive points “I hope this convention showcases all the best things about Milwaukee. But it’s a city, like many other Democratic-run cities, that has some incredibly significant problems.”

According to , coming to Milwaukee with Trump and the RNC is a gaggle of about 120 different protest organizations.

Some protesters criticized Milwaukee’s decision to host the convention due to its strong Democratic Party support, but Johnson, a Democrat, he wholeheartedly accepted his role as host for the RNC. Johnson spoke pragmatically: “The bottom line for me is that the Republican candidate gets nominated somewhere,” Johnson said. “So what better way to realize our growth ambitions than to have a national political convention that the whole world will watch come to Milwaukee.”