We’re not fancy campaign consultants or anything, but it seems to us less than optimal to be the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president of the United States and then trash the swing-state city where your party plans to hold its convention just weeks later.
Precisely what Donald Trump said about Milwaukee in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill with Republican lawmakers is open to politically charged debate. Democrats seized on the phrase “horrible city,” as first reported by Punchbowl, and Republicans then claimed Trump was taken out of context and was not so much making an aesthetic judgment (for which, we’d add, he hardly is qualified) as noting the prevalence of crime and other issues generally common to all urban locales, including Milwaukee.
Trump supporters will no doubt laugh it off as fake news, as they have learned to do with so many of their candidate’s ill-considered utterances. We’ll take the Republicans at their word.
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Still, we sympathize with our neighbor. The equally clueless Darren Bailey, a gubernatorial race loser, called Chicago a “hellhole” even as he was running for governor in a state that, last time we checked, includes Chicago. For the record, we think Milwaukee is a most attractive city with a really nice lakefront, robust eateries, a superb museum and theater scene, and an enviably glam casino of the kind Chicago now wishes it built years ago.
Another thing we like about Milwaukee, and Badgers in general, is the prevalent sense of humor. This pocket scandal brought it out nicely, as first noted by Business Insider.
“Once he’s settled in with his parole officer, I am certain he will discover that Milwaukee is a wonderful, vibrant and welcoming city full of diverse neighborhoods and a thriving business community,” Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin wrote on X, making Trump-infused lemonade.
