Former President Donald Trump denied criticizing Milwaukee in a new television interview ahead of next month’s Republican convention there. Milwaukee’s NBC affiliate WTMJ speaks he will remain in town for the convention.
“I always planned to stay 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 acted on plans for Trump to stay at his Chicago hotel on Monday, ahead of numerous press reports about his plans. And Chicago Ald. Brian Hopkins, chairman of the city council’s public safety committee. With Trump planning to stay at Trump Tower in Chicago during the GOP convention, the city said it plans security measures with the campaign — in person and by phone.
“They suddenly changed their minds,” Hopkins said Tuesday. “The Trump campaign has contacted the city to say, ‘We’re not coming,’ except for a possible reception in the city,” Hopkins continued.
Trump also denied the news about him in the interview he said Milwaukee was the “terrible” crime-ridden city during a meeting with House Republicans in Washington last week. Instead, he called Democrats liars, said he spoke more broadly about crime, and noted that he chose Milwaukee for the convention, even though it was finalized long before the party had a presumptive 2024 nominee.
Trump said crime was “too high” in many cities and too many guns were “in certain hands.”
Asked how he plans to work with big-city mayors to fight crime, Trump said, “the main thing is big police work, you have to give power and control back to the police.”
Trump also criticized President Joe Biden’s new decision Efforts to allow undocumented immigrant spouses of American citizens and their children to live in the United States. Trump said the Biden administration “won’t stop there” when it comes to immigration reform, claiming it was “for a vote.”
It was also a central theme of Trump’s Tuesday rally in Racine, Wisconsin, where he criticized Biden’s border policy and highlighted examples of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes in the United States. despite high-profile murders and other incidents, there is no evidence of a wider crime wave fueled by migrants..