In a meeting with House Republicans on Thursday, former President Donald Trump called Milwaukee — the host of the 2024 Republican National Convention — a “horrible” city and said it is overrun by crime.
The comments, which were first reported by Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman and confirmed by NBC News, drew criticism from Democrats, while Trump’s allies scrambled to defend his remarks.
The Trump campaign denied that he called the city “horrible,” writing in a press release that the reports are a “total lie.” Yet, the campaign still seemed to imply that Trump spoke disparagingly of the city.
“President Trump was explicitly referring to the problems in Milwaukee, specifically violent crime and voter fraud,” the campaign said in its statement.
Several Republican lawmakers also denied he made the comments in the meeting, held at the Capitol Hill Club. The event came just weeks ahead of the Republican convention in Milwaukee, where the party is set to officially nominate Trump as its presidential candidate.
Other congressional Republicans sought to explain and contextualize Trump’s comments, rather than deny them. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, of Wisconsin, wrote in a post on X that the former president was specifically referring to the city’s crime rate, while others reportedly said Trump was speaking about election integrity.
