Trump Tells Voters in Milwaukee He Doesn’t Want Their Money, ‘I Want Your Damn Vote’
In another digressive speech, Trump attacks his enemies and offers lofty promises to his supporters.
Donald Trump speaks at Fiserv Forum on Nov. 1, 2024. Photo by Graham Kilmer.
In a wide-ranging speech Friday night that lasted more than 87 minutes, former president Donald Trump made his case to approximately 12,000 people at Fiserv Forum that he would save the country if elected president.
He also spent plenty of time attacking his opponent, Kamala Harris, who was holding her own rally a few miles to the west at Wisconsin State Fair Park. It was the second time in a week that both candidates were campaigning in Wisconsin on the same day.
For the former president, the rally in Milwaukee marked a return to the venue of the 2024 Republican National Convention. “We love this place, right?” said Trump, taking credit for a Navy ship-building contract awarded to Marinette Marine in 2020.
Wisconsin’s 10 electoral college votes are expected to play a pivotal role in the election, and a recent poll by Marquette University suggests the race is effectively a dead heat in the state. “We win this state and we win the whole thing,” said Trump on Friday.
The former president let on that he was buoyed, at least in part, by what he said was a “pitiful” October jobs report released by the Department of Labor Friday. Doing a substantial amount of math on the stage, he claimed a “whistleblower” had exposed lies in the data, creating downward revisions. “It’s great to run against the people that created those numbers.” However, thousands of people lost their jobs across the southeast following the hurricanes this month and several strikes, resulting in just 112,000 being added in October. The report said the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.
He also repeated his false claims that he won Wisconsin during the 2020 election. “I actually won it twice but these are minor details,” he said.
Standing in the center of where the Milwaukee Bucks play, Trump referred to the team’s star Giannis Antetokounmpo. “I would say the Greek is a seriously good player.” But then he veered into a comment about Antetokounmpo’s racial makeup. “And tell me, who has more Greek in him, the Greek or me? I think we have about the same, right?” Antetokounmpo’s parents immigrated to Greece from Nigeria.
He also mentioned that former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre endorsed him and spoke at his rally in Green Bay in Wednesday. “I love Brett Favre,” he said, while discussing the size of his fingers and how they help him throw a football really far.
The crowd, however, was not all Wisconsinites. At one point, Trump shouted out Illinois and a large portion of the audience issued a cheer. He then went on to attack governor JB Pritzker and his weight.
At the convention, Trump gave the longest convention speech in U.S. history. This time, the former president took time out of a roughly one-and-a-half-hour speech to explain his discursive style of public speaking, which he calls “the weave.” The former president said he doesn’t care about teleprompters, “Because I never read the damn thing anyway.” But at several points he could be seen reading the teleprompters.
Trump wove in and out of campaign talking points and digressions on a number of MAGA themes like migrant crime and expanding fossil fuel production, or “drill, baby, drill” as he likes to say.
At several different points, he stopped to grouse about his microphone after members of the crowd were shouting that they couldn’t hear him. “I’m seething,” he said. “I’m working my ass off with this stupid mic.” He said the contractor shouldn’t be paid and that the media would take that out of context.
He more than once mentioned that he thought Eric Hovde was handsome, “He’s such a handsome guy.” He also told a woman in the crowd she was beautiful, then lamented that you’re not allowed to call anyone beautiful anymore, then, turning to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said, “Ron Johnson would never do that, that’s why he’s a great politician.”
Hovde and Johnson were among a handful of Wisconsin Republicans that opened the event for Trump, including party chairman Brian Schimming, former governors Scott Walker and Tommy Thompson and U.S. Representatives Scott Fitzgerald and Bryan Steil. New MAGA figure Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also gave a speech, and told voters in Wisconsin not to vote for him despite the fact his name will be on their ballots.
The message from the Wisconsin Republicans was mostly doom and gloom, with Trump as a source of hope. Walker waxed about how life was better under Trump. Steil told the crowd, “Help is on the way”; Hovde said “I sometimes don’t recognize our country”; Johnson said the Democratic Party is a “threat to America.”
Trump summed up his message to voters early in his speech, “We have a country that’s going to hell but we’re gonna turn it around very fast.” Whether the problem is inflation, the general economy, crime, immigration or international conflict, according to Trump, it is the fault of President Joe Biden and Harris. And under Trump, all these problems will be solved. At least, that’s what he promised his supporters in Milwaukee Friday night.
Like many of his speeches throughout the campaign, Trump dedicated significant time to sewing fear about immigration. He said “bloodthirsty criminals” are coming into the country and that he plans to “launch the largest deportation program in history” and “ban all sanctuary cities,” which refers to municipal governments that do not cooperate with federal law enforcement agencies to detain undocumented immigrants.
Trump made the economy, and promises of enriching Americans through tariffs and fossil fuel production, major pieces of his speech. He didn’t just promise to end inflation, but said inflation would have never happened had he won the presidency in 2020. However, Trump’s signature economic policies of tax cuts and tariffs would likely worsen inflation according to several economists.
Trump launched personal attacks against his opponent throughout his speech, calling Harris “stupid,” possessed of a “low IQ” and unfit for the job. “She’ll get overwhelmed, melt down and millions of people will die.” He also appeared to disparage Hovde’s opponent, Sen. Tammy Baldwin. He began my mentioning that Hovde looked like he was out of “central casting” then wove into an attack on Baldwin, “Is she a disaster? Oh she’s a horror show.”
Trump also attacked the press, pointing to media in the room and saying, “They’re the most dishonest human beings.” He reserved special ire for ABC News anchor David Muir: “His hair’s not as good as it used to be.”
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A dirty lowlife using racist redbaiting and mud slinging
*RUMP certainly has a case of ***** envy, I feel sorry for Arnold Palmer’s family to have to listen to his ramblings.
Eric Hovde’s lack of ethics is an important topic of this campaign. Hovde endorses—and is endorsed by—Donald Trump, a convicted felon guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. As CEO of Sunwest Bank, Eric Hovde should be at arm’s length from felons and practices of criminal fraud, yet he seems fine with them. Why?
Women and young girls can breathe a sigh of relief that the twice impeached, convicted felon, sexual abuser and proud p*ssy grabber has made his last stop in our state. We must not forget that the racist, misogynist, bully, serial liar, and business fraudster is a serious threat to our democracy. Hope the orange scum bag never returns.
he texted me several times week attempting to get me to donate.
The rest of them, I understand, but I wonder if Tommy Thompson has any misgivings about being part of the rogue’s gallery.
Dave Bautista put it best,
“Fellas, we gotta talk. A lot of men seem to think that Donald Trump is some kind of tough guy. He’s not, I mean, look at him, he wears more make-up than Dolly Parton. He whines like a baby. The guy is afraid of birds. Donald Trump had his daddy pay a doctor to say his little feet hurt, so he could dodge the draft. Look at that gut. It’s like a garbage bag full of buttermilk. He’s afraid that real American men will find out that he’s a weak, tubby, toddler. What’s wrong, tough guy? Did someone grab you by the pus##? Whiny little bit##.”
He also compared Trump’s “dance” moves as resembling someone “jacking off a pair of giraffes,”
Well said Dave!
As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy T was responsible for making the US Government (and the taxpayers) pay more for prescription drugs. In 2003, when Part D was added to Medicare, he did not let the plan negotiate for reduced drug prices, making the plan pay full price. Why doesn’t anyone ever bring this up? In effect, he gave BILLIONS to the drug companies over the last 20 years because of his carelessness in drafting the legislation
Trump has been nothing more than the nefarious ringmaster of a lunatic circus of his own creation. But his current persona and emotional state clearly indicate that he has taken up the additional circus duties of a clown, a huckster, and a snake oil salesman.
If any sane person’s grandpa talked at the dinner table like he does to his adoring supporters at his rallies, you would be taking away the car keys, considering an intervention and Googling assisted living accomodations.
It is perplexing and embarrassing that the Republican Party not only chose this guy as their candidate for POTUS, but worships and idolizes him like he is the second coming of Christ. And Eric Hovde, Ron Johnson, Brian Schimming, Scott Walker, Tommy Thompson, Scott Fitzgerald and Bryan Steil should have their heads examined for even tacitly endorsing this clown and his circus.
My closing advice to each of them and all of those enamored of this ringmaster and his three-ring disaster he plans to perpetrate on our democracy is this:
You are the company you keep.
He’s a very useful idiot to the oligarchs and Russia. Only We The People can save us now. Vote like our democracy depends upon it, as it surely does.
Only so he can pardon all his felonies and stay out of jail.
Trump wants a “Get out of Jail Free” card. If elected, he may be able to get out of his four criminal cases pending. A President Trump in charge of the US Department of Justice could have the power to wiggle out of his current convictions. And–most ominously–wiggle out of future convictions. And commute sentences or give pardons to his enablers.