Trump’s Going to Hate Milwaukee Even More After Its Voters Crush Him in November (2024)

Politics / June 18, 2024

The Republican nominee called the city hosting his party’s convention “horrible.” Just wait until Milwaukeeans get to show him how they feel about that.

Alice Cooper showed proiper respect for Milwaukee in the 1992 film “Wayne’s World,” when public access TV hosts Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) get backstage passes and encounter the rocker after a show in the Brew City. “So, do you come to Milwaukee often?” asks Wayne. Cooper replies, “Well, I’m a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers were coming here as early as the late 1600s to trade with the Native Americans.” Legandary guitarist Pete Friesen, the a member of Cooper’s band, chimes in: “In fact, isn’t ‘Milwaukee’ an Indian name?” “Yes, Pete, it is,” says Cooper, who explains that, “Actually, it’s pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que,’ which is Algonquin for ‘the good land.'”“I was not aware of that,” responds Wayne. Then Cooper continues with his reflection on Wisconsin’s largest city. “I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it’s the only major American city to have ever elected three socialist mayors.”

“Does this guy know how to party or what!” asks Wayne.

Cooper’s referencing of Milwaukee’s political heritage, as a city with a long history of working-class politics came to mind last week, after defeated former President Donald Trump informed Republican members of Congress that, “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.”Republicans are bringing delegates and alternates from 56 states and territories to Milwaukee from July 15th to 18th, in order to coronate — technically, nominate — Trump for the presidency. Local officials, pretty much all of whom are Democrats, had gone out of their way to be polite to their guests. It’s called “Wisconsin nice,” which is to say that, even if you don’t like someone, you try to find something agreeable to say about them. But Trump’s wildly ungracious remarks inspired expressions of hometown loyalty that left no doubt as to where Milwaukeeans stand with regard to then former president. Noting Trump’s recent conviction on charges of criminal wrongdoing in New York — along with his upcoming trials on dozens of additional counts — U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, said, “I don’t know many people in Milwaukee who have 34 felony counts against them. So our crime rate is going to go up when he joins us in Milwaukee.”Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who has gone out of his way to make Republicans feel welcome in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, referred to Trump’s remarks as “bizarre” and “unhinged” and said, “If Donald Trump wantrs to talk about things that he thinks are horrible, all of us lived through his presidency, so right back at you, buddy!”Republicans have a long history of hating on Milwaukee — which did, in fact, elect three highly-regarded Socialist Party mayors in the 20th century: Emil Seidel, Dan Hoan and Frank Zeidler; along wth a Socialist Party member of Congress, a Socialist sheriff, a Socialist city attorney, and Socialist-led city councils and school boards. In fact, when Democrats decided to hold their national convention in the city in 2020, Republicans bashed their rivals for the decision.“No city in America has stronger ties to socialism than Milwaukee,” griped Wisconsin Republican Party Director Mark Jefferson. “And with the rise of Bernie Sanders and the embrace of socialism by its newest leaders, the American left has come full circle. It’s only fitting the Democrats would come to Milwaukee.” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said the Milwaukee convention would provide a “firsthand look” at “the risk of Democrat socialistic tendencies.”With no sense of irony whatsoever, the Republicans decided four years later to decamp to Milwaukee. They didn’t choose to convene in the city becuase the liked it. Rather, that wanted to hold their convention in the ultimate battleground state — four of the last six presidential elections in the Badger State have been decided by under 25,000 votes — and Milwaukee was the only city with enough hotel rooms to begin to accomodate the tens of thousands of delegates, alternates, journalists and political hangers on who show up for a national party convention.The theory was that, even though Republicans don’t like Milwaukee, they could take advantage of the city’s accommodations, along with a fabulous lakefront setting that just weeks before the convention will be host to Summerfest, the annual cavalcade of rock, soul, blues and jazz concerts that is recognized as “the world’s largest music festival.” And, if all went well, they could get lots of good publicty, and maybe even some good feeling, in a state that Trump has to win in November.Trump’s trash talking of the city upended that plan. And Republicans from Wisconsin actually made things worse, as GOP members of the state’s congressional delegation tried to cover for their soon-t0-be nominee with conflicting explanations for what Trump was trying to say. In an absurd illustration of the extent which Republicans care more about pleasing their cult leader than about defending their own states, Republican House members claimed that Trump didn’t say what he said, that he was taken out of context, that he was simply commenting on crime in the city, that he was accusing city officials of engaging in election fraud and, in some cases, all of the above.“He said nothing that I consider to be a criticism of Milwaukee, other than that we’ve got to get more of them to be voting Republican in the future,” added Grothman, who represents a district near Milwaukee.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, 6th Congressional District

Grothman said Trump “was concerned about the election in Milwaukee” and said he thought Trump “felt we need to do better in urban centers around the country.” He suggested Trump had concerns that Republicans “didn’t do very well in Milwaukee.”