Behind Closed Doors, Trump Disparages Milwaukee, Host of His Party’s Convention

The former president, in a meeting with G.O.P. House members, brought up the city’s crime rate and falsely claimed voter fraud was rampant there in 2020.

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Former President Donald J. Trump criticized Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention will take place.

Former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday repeatedly disparaged the city of Milwaukee, which will host the Republican National Convention in July, while meeting with a group of his G.O.P. allies in the House on Capitol Hill.

The city, the most populous in the battleground state of Wisconsin, became a target of Mr. Trump’s complaints and election falsehoods during a closed-door session with Republicans in Washington, even as Mr. Trump is set to accept his party’s presidential nomination there next month.

Mr. Trump’s exact language and the degree of disdain of his comments were disputed by his allies, but his campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, acknowledged on X that Mr. Trump had criticized the city’s crime rate and its role in his loss in the 2020 election.

Mr. Cheung pushed back on one description of the meeting by Punchbowl News, which reported that Mr. Trump had called Milwaukee “horrible.” Mr. Cheung used an expletive to describe the outlet’s report, which he said was “wrong.”

“He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are,” Mr. Cheung wrote.

Milwaukee’s mayor and Wisconsin’s governor, who are both Democrats, condemned Mr. Trump's criticism of the city, which is set to host thousands of Republican delegates and dignitaries from July 15 to July 18.

“Well, 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,” Cavalier Johnson, the city’s mayor, said during a news conference on Thursday.

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