Former President Donald Trump planned to stay at a hotel in Chicago during next month’s Republican National Convention, but changed plans on Tuesday when his campaign was asked why he wasn’t staying in the host city where he is expected to be anointed as the party’s official presidential candidate.
Two people familiar with Trump’s plans told an ABC station in Chicago that the former president planned to stay at a Trump hotel in the city and commute to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when thousands of delegates will convene from July 15 to 18. The New York Times confirmed those plans, but the Trump campaign later said he would, in fact, stay in Wisconsin amid questions from media outlets.
“We did have solid indications he was originally planning to stay in Chicago, at least for some period of time,” Brian Hopkins, a Democratic Chicago alderman and chair of the city’s public safety committee, told ABC7. “Campaigns change schedules all the time. The Trump campaign is like any other; they react to circumstances, they react to the optics, and I think in this case it looked pretty bad to not be staying in Wisconsin.”
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Trump has been trying to woo Wisconsinites following reports he called Milwaukee a “horrible city” during a meeting with House Republicans last week. He tried to walk back those remarks in an interview with Fox News last Thursday and has since claimed he never made them, saying he was concerned with crime, but loved the city and had “great friends” there.
“These lying people,” the former president told supporters at a rally in Racine, Wisc., on Tuesday. “They say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t like Milwaukee.’ I love Milwaukee. I said we’ve got to fix the crime. We all know that. You’ve got to make sure the election is honest, but I’m the one who picked Milwaukee.”
The Times notes that Trump often opts to stay at his own properties while campaigning and would regularly travel long distances after events to do so.
Wisconsin, which President Joe Biden won in 2020 by just 20,000 votes, is set to be a key battleground state in November. The Democratic National Committee recently launched a series of billboards featuring Trump’s reported comments around Milwaukee. A DNC spokesperson said the former president had “made his contempt for Wisconsinites and their home clear.”
The state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, also dinged Trump shortly after his initial remarks were made public.
“Add it to the list of things Donald Trump is wrong about,” Evers wrote on X. He ended the message with a clown emoji.