MILWAUKEE, WI (WSAU) – Lawmakers from around the state of Wisconsin are reacting to alleged comments made by former President Trump about the city of Milwaukee during a meeting with GOP representatives on Capitol Hill.
According to Punchbowl News, which was the first to report on the comment, Trump allegedly said “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city,” which prompted Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to respond in a post on X saying, “Add to the list of things Donald Trump is wrong about” with a clown emoji at the end.
Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin also responded to the report on X crediting the city for “making the best beer, brats, and motorcycles in the world” and continued by saying, “Donald Trump wouldn’t understand even if a jury told him so,” which is a dig at the former President’s conviction in New York for the case involving falsifying business records to pay hush money to former pornstar Stormy Daniels.
The nature of the comment in question remains unknown, with lawmakers like Wisconsin congressman Bryan Steil, who was in the meeting, saying Trump did not make the comment, while Congressman Glenn Grothman, who was also in the meeting and spoke to Wisconsin Right Now on Thursday, said a comment about Milwaukee was made, but the alleged quote was taken out of context as Trump referring to the RNC doing more to win big northern cities electorally, such as Madison and Milwaukee.
Indiana congressman Jim Banks, another attendee in the meeting, posted on X that “I was in the meeting. President Trump never disparaged Milwaukee,” and continued in another post, calling the quote “just another Democrat hoax.” The Trump campaign responded to the Punchbowl News story, calling it a “total lie,” in a press release on Thursday afternoon, saying, “President Trump was explicitly referring to the problems in Milwaukee, specifically violent crime and voter fraud.”
Milwaukee has taken some heat in recent years after Money Inc. named the city in a 2023 study as the 16th most dangerous city in the U.S., which was followed by another study a short time later that used U.S. Census Bureau data to name Milwaukee “one of the most miserable cities in the country.” In a quote from the study, the outlet stated, “Another city filled with an industrial mess, Milwaukee is not pretty. Additionally, the crime rate is pretty high. While some areas remain safer than others, some more dangerous spots of the city are responsible for a crime rate of 1,597 per 100,000 people,” while also citing the city’s high poverty rate of 28.4%.
The criticism of Milwaukee did not stop there, as Our Health Depot also named Milwaukee the “ugliest town in Wisconsin,” giving it the nickname “Pittsburgh of the Midwest” due to its industrial background, but the city has seen improvements so far this year, with the Milwaukee Police Department citing data showing homicides are down 39%, robberies have decreased 14%, and auto theft is down 10% from this time last year.
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