Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday proclaimed his love for Milwaukee, less than a week after he reportedly called the city “horrible” during a meeting with House Republicans.
“I love Milwaukee,” he told the crowd here in Racine, a city 30 miles south of Milwaukee.
Trump said it was his choice to have Milwaukee host the Republican National Convention this summer.
“I was the one that picked it,” the former president said. “These lying people. They say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t like Milwaukee.’ I love Milwaukee. I said we’ve got to fix the crime. We all know that. You’ve got to make sure the election is honest, but I’m the one who picked Milwaukee.”
Trump accused Democrats of lying because they have a “horrible candidate” who has “no clue” and “doesn’t know where he is,” referring to President Joe Biden.
“I think you had about 10 congressmen in a meeting that we had recently where I said how much I like Milwaukee. That’s all what they said,” he said.
At a closed-door meeting Thursday with House Republicans on Capitol Hill, the former president called Milwaukee “horrible” during a rant about crime rates and so-called election integrity, according to a source in the room.
Several members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation later confirmed that Trump used the word “horrible” when talking about Milwaukee in the context of crime and elections. Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who was in the room, made clear to CNN that Trump was “specifically referring to crime in Milwaukee” and not the city itself. The city was a center of Trump and his allies’ election conspiracies in 2020.