Former President Donald Trump denied slighting Milwaukee in a new TV interview ahead of next month’s Republican convention there, telling NBC affiliate WTMJ of Milwaukee that he will be staying in the city for the convention.
“I was always planning on staying here,” Trump said. “Again, I chose Milwaukee for a reason.”
But a law enforcement source told NBC News that the Secret Service and local law enforcement had been acting on plans for Trump to stay at his hotel in Chicago as recently as Monday, before multiple press reports about his plans. And Chicago Ald. Brian Hopkins, chair of the city council’s public safety committee. said the city had been planning safety measures with the campaign — in person and by phone — with the plan of Trump staying in Chicago’s Trump Tower during the GOP convention.
“They abruptly changed their minds,” Hopkins said on Tuesday. “The Trump campaign has communicated with the city to say: ‘We’re not coming after all,'” with the possible exception of a reception in the city, Hopkins continued.
In the interview, Trump also denied reports the he said Milwaukee was a “horrible” city overrun by crime during a meeting with House Republicans in Washington, D.C., last week. He instead called Democrats liars, said that he was talking more broadly about crime and noted that he picked Milwaukee for the convention, though it was finalized long before he was the party’s presumptive 2024 nominee.
Trump went on to say crime is “way too high” in many cities and too many guns are in “certain hands.”
Asked how he plans to work with big city mayors to combat crime, Trump said “basic great police work, you have to give the authority and the control back to the police.”
Trump also lashed out at President Joe Biden’s new effort to allow undocumented immigrant spouses of American citizens and their children to reside in the United States. Trump claimed it is “for the vote,” saying the Biden administration “won’t stop there” when it comes to immigration reform.
It was a main theme of Trump’s Tuesday rally in Racine, Wisconsin, too, where he criticized Biden’s border policy and highlighted examples of undocumented immigrants committing crimes in the U.S., though despite high-profile murders and other incidents, there is no evidence of a broader crime wave fueled by migrants.
