Insights from Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Wisconsin

RACINE, Wisconsin – “I love Milwaukee.”

With these words, Donald Trump began his nearly 90-minute speech in Racine, shortly after news outlets reported that the former president planned to stay in Chicago rather than the host city of Wisconsin during the Republican National Convention, and a week after Trump shocked the people of Milwaukee by calling the state’s largest city “terrible” in comments to Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.

The rally was just beginning when ABC7 Chicago and the New York Times reported that Trump had originally planned to stay in Chicago during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is expected to be officially declared the Republican presidential nominee.

A Trump spokeswoman denied the reports, but a law enforcement source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a USA TODAY Network partner, that law enforcement had been informed of Trump’s planned daily trips from Chicago to Milwaukee during the July 15-18 convention.

“These lying people who say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t like Milwaukee.’ I love Milwaukee. I said you have to fight crime, we all know that, you have to make sure the election is honest, but I’m the one who picked Milwaukee,” Trump told the crowd.

Rally participants unimpressed by comment on Milwaukee as a “terrible city”

Trump’s rally in southeastern Wisconsin also comes less than a week after he called Milwaukee a “terrible city,” weeks before Milwaukee is set to host the Republican National Convention in July, sparking a social media backlash from Democrats and Biden. Racine is about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

Republican members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegations offered different explanations for what Trump meant, such as crime or elections. Trump has previously made false claims about illegal votes in Milwaukee, although the delayed results for Biden in 2020 were due to the way the city processes its mail-in ballots.

Rally attendees said the media took Trump’s comments out of context, but largely agreed that Trump was talking about crime, which they said is also a problem in Milwaukee.

“It’s the violence, and that’s what he was referring to. Milwaukee is a beautiful city if you go to the right place,” said Kim Toutant of Racine, who was attending a rally for the first time. “Every day, children are shot in their own homes while sitting on their couches.”

Buck Steiniger, a Wausau-area resident, believes people in northern Wisconsin aren’t too worried about crime in Milwaukee. “People up there think, ‘Whatever happens down there, we’re safe up here,'” he said.

Fellow protester John Lazariciu said the media was trying to defame Trump and said they were not paying the same attention to Biden’s statements.

“He’s muttering gibberish on the world stage and the media is covering for him,” Lazariciu said. “All the headlines about Trump in the liberal media, I can easily overlook that when I see how they’ve treated him for nine years.”

Michael Boese of Edgerton said, “It’s crystal clear” that Trump was referring to crime.

“He didn’t say how bad crime is in Milwaukee, it’s terrible. Everyone knows that,” Boese said. “I like Milwaukee. I’m a Brewers fan, I go to the State Fair, but crime is getting worse.”

In Milwaukee, there were double-digit percentage decreases in homicides (20%), auto thefts (23%) and property crimes (13%) from 2022 to 2023, although these crimes increased compared to 2019.

More: In context: Are these two recent statements about crime in Milwaukee fair and accurate?

Trump claims Biden’s immigration order is a plan to win new voters for the Democrats

Thousands of immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens but are in the country illegally will be protected from deportation and allowed to work while they seek permanent legality under a new government program announced by President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Trump described the plan as a democratic project that would give hundreds of thousands of immigrants the right to vote.

Biden plans to allow undocumented spouses and their children to apply for permanent residency without leaving the country if they meet certain criteria.

To be eligible, immigrants must have lived in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, 2024, and be legally married to a U.S. citizen at that time. They must not have been paroled and must not pose a threat to public safety and national security. On average, those eligible for the program have lived in the United States for 23 years, officials said.

Under current law, many immigrants seeking legal status must first leave the United States and wait abroad for their application to be processed, which can take years. The new rule allows them to stay and work in the United States for up to three years while they pursue permanent residency.

Without obtaining citizenship, they are not granted voting rights under this arrangement.

In Racine, Trump called the plan “a direct attack on American democracy and another example of how Biden and his communists are destroying our constitutional system and replacing it with a corrupt and fascist regime.”

Trump said the plan would be “torn up and thrown overboard on the first day we return to office.”

“You know what they’re trying to do? They’re trying to register these people and register (as voters),” Trump said without evidence. “They’re not citizens. They’re not allowed to do that. It’s absolutely illegal.”

Trump again falsely claims he did “much better” in Wisconsin in 2020 than in 2016

During his speech, Trump repeated the well-known false claim that he performed better in the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin than in the 2016 election.

PolitiFact Wisconsin verified this claim in April, before Trump’s first rally in Green Bay. In 2020, Biden received 1,630,866 votes compared to Trump’s 1,610,184 in the state, leaving Trump losing by 20,682 votes.

Trump won the state in 2016, winning by more than 22,000 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton. He received 1,405,284 votes in Wisconsin in 2016.

Although Trump received more votes in 2020, his result was no better, as he lost by about 20,000 votes.

Eric Hovde appears on stage with Trump

Trump-backed U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde appeared on stage with Trump as he challenged Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin, praising Trump’s immigration policies and criticizing rising prices under Biden.

“They’re oppressing the working class,” Hovde said. “And what about the border? President Trump showed you the numbers… he had the border completely under control.”

Trump said in his speech that Hovde is from the Racine area, but Hovde is a businessman from Madison, not from southeastern Wisconsin. Trump announced his support for Hovde in April during his first campaign visit to Wisconsin in Green Bay.

Biden’s allies criticize Trump over Foxconn deals

Ahead of Trump’s rally, Biden allies held a press conference in Racine to sharply criticize Trump for his handling of an unsuccessful economic development project by Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn.

Former Republican Governor Scott Walker and Republicans in the House signed a law in 2017 that would provide billions of dollars in taxpayer incentives for Foxconn to build an LCD panel factory in Racine County, creating 13,000 jobs.

Trump hosted events at the White House to promote the project, declaring it the “eighth wonder of the world” at the 2018 groundbreaking ceremony. But the project never came to fruition. On Tuesday, Trump made no mention of the massive project, which was to take place in the same district where his rally was held.

“Trump’s policies have not brought Wisconsin the jobs it promised. In fact, we have lost jobs. A second term could be even more disastrous,” said Democratic Rep. Greta Neubauer of Racine at the press conference at the local Democratic Party headquarters.

More: President Biden touts Microsoft’s “comeback project” in Racine County, contrasting it with Foxconn’s failure

Rally participant Gina Kocjas of Caledonia said she blames Walker and the state legislature for the Foxconn fallout.

“I don’t blame Trump for this,” said Kocjas, who lives in Racine County.

She said Trump’s base in Racine will not move because of Foxxconn – or his convictions in the New York hush money case.

“He has his base and he is getting more and more base. These beliefs and all that don’t matter,” Kocjas said.

Vivek Ramaswamy compares Trump’s impeachment to the hurdles the Founding Fathers faced

Former Republican presidential candidate and outsider vice presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attempted to compare Trump to the first President of the United States in the prelude to Trump’s speech in Racine.

In his address to the crowd at the rally, Ramaswamy compared the criminal charges brought against Trump to the unrest at the time of the founding of the country.

“They made those sacrifices in 1776 and I believe that today, in 2024, we are experiencing a 1776 moment and that Donald Trump is the George Washington of our time. That’s what I believe. That’s why I’m here today,” he said.

Influential conservatives encouraged Trump earlier this year to choose Ramaswamy as his running mate, but in recent weeks other rivals have come to the fore in Trump’s eyes.

Trump says he prefers Lake Michigan because there are no sharks there

Trump gave a speech on Tuesday at a harbor on Lake Michigan, which he described as “beautiful.”

“Much better to sit here or on the Pacific or Atlantic where there are sharks,” Trump said to laughter from the crowd. “I’ll take the one without sharks.”

Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Molly Beck, Rachel Hale and Hope Karnopp can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Takeaways from Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Wisconsin