Democrats are reportedly placing billboards up in an attempt to capitalize on the claim that former President Donald Trump had called Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a “horrible city.”
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is planning to place 10 billboards throughout the city, five of which will have the words, “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city,” while the other five will reportedly show Jake Sherman’s post on X, according to Axios.
These comments were first reported by Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman, who claimed in a post on X on Thursday that Trump had said Milwaukee was a “horrible city” during his meeting with House Republicans.
“TRUMP TO HOUSE REPUBLICANS,” Sherman wrote in his post. “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.”
Milwaukee is to be the location of the Republican National Convention.
During an interview on Fox News Channel’s Hannity, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated that he had not heard Trump say those words during the meeting and that he had been “sitting right next to him.”
After Sherman’s post, several House Republicans, such as Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) stated that Trump had never said this.
Despite this, President Joe Biden and Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) capitalized on the claim that Trump had called Milwaukee a “horrible city.”
“I happen to love Milwaukee,” Biden wrote in his post on X.
I happen to love Milwaukee. pic.twitter.com/QRfgwbETV7
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 13, 2024
Trump Campaign Spokesman Steven Cheung labeled the claim “total bullshit.”
“Wrong. Total bullshit. He never said it like how it’s been falsely characterized as,” Cheung wrote in a post on X. “He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are.”
An April poll from the League of American Workers/North Star Opinion Research showed that Trump and Biden were virtually tied in Wisconsin, with Trump leading the president by a single point.
A Cook Report/BSG/GS Strategy Group poll from May showed that Trump was dominating in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Michigan, while Wisconsin was still tied.
