Trump’s Going to Hate Milwaukee Even More After Its Voters Crush Him in November (2024)

Alice Cooper showed proper respect for Milwaukee in the 1992 film Wayne’s World when public-access TV hosts Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) got ahold of backstage passes and encountered the rocker after a show in the Brew City.

“So, do you come to Milwaukee often?” asked Wayne. Cooper replied, “Well, I’m a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers were coming here as early as the late 1600s to trade with the Native Americans.” Legendary guitarist Pete Friesen, a member of Cooper’s band, piped up: “In fact, isn’t ‘Milwaukee’ an Indian name?” “Yes, Pete, it is,” answered Cooper, who explained, “Actually, it’s pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que,’ which is Algonquin for ‘the good land.’”

“I was not aware of that,” responded Wayne. “I think,” Cooper continued, “one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it’s the only major American city to have ever elected three socialist mayors.”

“Does this guy know how to party or what!” Wayne exclaimed.

Cooper’s referencing of Milwaukee’s heritage as a city with a great track record of working-class politics came to mind last week, after former president Donald Trump informed Republican members of Congress that “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.”

Republicans are bringing delegates and alternates from 56 states and territories to Wisconsin’s largest city from July 15 to 18, in order to coronate—or, technically, nominate—Trump for the presidency. Local officials, pretty much all of whom are Democrats, have gone out of their way to be polite to their guests. It’s called “Wisconsin nice,” which is to say that, even if you don’t like someone, you try to find a way to be charitable toward them. But even the nicest Milwaukeeans had trouble brushing off Trump’s wildly ungracious remarks. His slander of the city inspired expressions of hometown loyalty that left no doubt as to where these Wisconsinites stand with regard to the former president.

Noting Trump’s recent conviction on charges of criminal wrongdoing in New York—along with his upcoming trials on dozens of additional counts—US Representative Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) said, “I don’t know many people in Milwaukee who have 34 felony counts against them. So our crime rate is going to go up when he joins us in Milwaukee.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who for months has made it his mission to let Republicans know they are welcome in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, called Trump’s remarks “bizarre” and “unhinged” and said, “If Donald Trump wants to talk about things that he thinks are horrible, all of us lived through his presidency, so right back at you, buddy!”

Republicans have a long history of hating on Milwaukee—which did, in fact, elect three highly regarded Socialist Party mayors in the 20th century (Emil Seidel, Dan Hoan, and Frank Zeidler), along with a Socialist Party member of Congress, a Socialist sheriff, a Socialist city attorney, Socialist-led city councils and school boards, and a large Socialist delegation to the state legislature. In fact, when Democrats decided to hold their national convention in the city in 2020, Wisconsin Republicans bashed their rivals for the decision. “No city in America has stronger ties to socialism than Milwaukee,” griped Wisconsin Republican Party Director Mark Jefferson. “And with the rise of Bernie Sanders and the embrace of socialism by its newest leaders, the American left has come full circle. It’s only fitting the Democrats would come to Milwaukee.” US Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said the Milwaukee convention would provide a “firsthand look” at “the risk of Democrat socialistic tendencies.”

With no sense of irony whatsoever, the Republicans decided four years later to decamp to Milwaukee. They didn’t choose to convene in the city because they liked the multiracial, multiethnic community that sends progressive Democrats to the Wisconsin statehouse and the nation’s Capitol in Washington, DC. Rather, GOP strategies wanted to hold their convention in the ultimate battleground state—four of the last six presidential elections in the Badger State have been decided by under 25,000 votes—and Milwaukee was the only city with enough hotel rooms to begin to accommodate the tens of thousands of delegates, alternates, journalists, and political hangers-on who show up for a national party gathering.

The theory was that, even though Republicans don’t like Milwaukee, they could take advantage of the city’s accommodations, along with a fabulous lakefront setting that has become a major draw for tourists and that, just weeks before the GOP convention, will host Summerfest, the annual cavalcade of rock, soul, blues, and jazz concerts that is recognized as “the world’s largest music festival.” If all went well, the Republicans figured, they could get lots of good publicity, and maybe even some good feeling, in a state that Trump has to win in November.