It's Not Just Milwaukee. Trump Hates the State of Wisconsin.

     Two weeks ago today, Donald Trump returned to the United States Capitol for the first time since he sent thousands of his supporters to attack the institution on January 6th, like an arsonist coming to see the charred remains that were once a home. There, he was given a standing ovation by House Republicans who once blamed him for the bloodshed that day but have now come to his defense for the sake of political expediency. Today also happens to be two weeks from his sentencing in the 2016 election interference trial in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records. Between these two milestones, it seems like it would be difficult for any political campaign to make it worse for themselves and survive. Donald Trump, as the past nine years have demonstrated, is not any politician.

     At that closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Donald Trump called Milwaukee a "horrible city." The reaction from both sides was swift, vicious, and predictable. Even for someone like Donald Trump, an adjudged sexual abuser and fraudster, this seemed damning. Because of its status as the largest city in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin and the host of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Milwaukee has a right to the title of the single most important city in the 2024 election, and, if insulting any city is a form of political self-harm, insulting a city like Milwaukee is a form of political suicide.

     Dozens of billboards are beginning to span the city and its suburbs highlighting Trumps' comments. The Biden campaign has unveiled merchandise and run newspaper ads. Mobcraft has created a new IPA referencing the incident. 

     Trump's sycophants from Wisconsin's congressional delegation rushed to his defense. Derrick Van Orden claimed Trump was referring to Milwaukee's crime rate; while Glenn Grothman, Tom Tiffany, and Scott Fitzgerald claimed that Trump was referencing "election integrity," in essence continuing to spew falsehoods about the 2020 election. The most laughable lie came from Bryan Steil, who claimed that Trump never called Milwaukee a "horrible city" at all.

     If it was a slip, it was Freudian one: Donald Trump does hate Milwaukee. It's not just Milwaukee: he hates the state of Wisconsin and every other state that rejected him in the 2020 election. That's because he isn't involved in politics for the good of the nation or to advance conservative ideals. Like anything else he does in his life, Trump does it for himself. At that same closed door meeting on Capitol Hill, Trump wasn't talking about inflation. He wasn't talking about the border. He was talking about his New York conviction, about his loss in the 2020 election, and every other grievance he has against all the enemies he himself has created.

     Donald Trump's record over four years in Wisconsin speaks for itself. 

     Some 18,000 Wisconsinites are dead of COVID, a virus Donald Trump said would disappear "like magic" and suggested treating by injecting bleach. 

     Trump continues to rant about crime, when his administration oversaw a record surge in crime in 2020. Contrast that to the Biden administration, which has seen violent crimes like homicide plunge by over 25 percent in the past year alone nationwide. In Wisconsin, that work has included Operation North Star, which saw 369 violent fugitives, including 48 wanted for homicide, arrested in the Milwaukee area in the span of just a few months.

     Trump promised to restore America's infrastructure, yet he did nothing for four years. Under President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Wisconsin will receive up to $10 billion over five years to restore our infrastructure and clean up our environment.

     Trump promised a manufacturing revival that never came, while Biden delivered billions of dollars in public and private sector investments in energy and manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin. Perhaps this is best evidenced in the city of Racine, where Trump hailed the $10 billion Foxconn investment as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and proudly joined the groundbreaking ceremony of a project that would instead become a yearslong headache. Earlier this year, President Biden came to Racine to break ground on a new Microsoft facility that will create 2,000 permanent jobs at the site of Foxconn's failed project.

     Trump saw unemployment in Wisconsin hit a record high of 14 percent, while President Biden saw unemployment in our state hit a record low of just 2.9 percent.

     Trump saw countless small businesses close, while President Biden has overseen the best years of small business creation in U.S. history, including over 200,000 new small business applications right here in Wisconsin.

     Trump called dead, injured, and captured veterans losers and suckers, while President Biden's Honoring Our PACT Act has delivered expanded healthcare to tens of thousands of veterans across Wisconsin. 

     I could go on. So, what must we as Wisconsinites do? The answer is simple: don't let Donald Trump try to walk back this comment or revise history as he has done so many times. Tonight, he will debate President Biden in the only way he can: lying through his teeth and pouting like a petulant child. Next month, he will waltz into Milwaukee like it's his hometown and expect to be treated as such. Don't give Donald Trump what he wants. His words and his record make perfectly clear that Donald Trump does not deserve Wisconsin.