Takeaways from Donald Trump's Wisconsin rally: economy, immigration, early voting
WAUKESHA – With polls showing a tight race for president in Wisconsin, former President Donald Trump returned to the battleground state Wednesday for the second time this year, rallying a crowd in Waukesha around immigration and economic issues.
Large crowds wearing red, white and blue formed in a long line around the parking lot earlier in the day to get into the Waukesha County Expo Center, a venue that both campaigns have now used as they try to foment support among voters in a suburban county that has lost some of its Republican strength.
In his hour-and-a-half speech, Trump claimed reelecting Biden would increase taxes and "lead to the destruction of the country. We have so many negative forces in this country," Trump said, calling out protests on college campuses early in his speech.
Police arrested protesters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison earlier Wednesday. He also praised the police response to protests at Columbia University.
"To every college president, I say: Remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn," Trump said.
Here are the takeaways from Trump's visit to Waukesha:
Immigration, economy were focus of Trump's speech
Similar to his rally in Green Bay, Trump used his speech to criticize Biden on his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it "the worst border in the history of the world."
"Biden came in and unleashed mayhem on our economy, just like he unleashed mayhem on our border," Trump said. "They have people flowing in from the poorest and the heaviest-crime countries all over the world."
In the latest Marquette University Law School poll, Wisconsin voters considered Trump better than Biden at handling immigration and border security, plus the economy, Israel-Hamas war and foreign relations. Biden had the lead on health care, abortion policy and Medicare and Social Security.
Voters overall ranked the economy as their top issue, with 33% saying it would be most important in deciding who to vote for. Immigration and border security was the second, with 21% citing that issue.
Trump also criticized Biden's economic policy and said he would deliver a "Trump economic boom" if he returns to the White House. Trump said he thought up the phrase "inflation tax" on the plane ride to Wisconsin, referring to higher costs of household goods.
More: Is Bryan Steil correct that households are spending $11,400 more per year because of Biden?
Immigrant rights group say Trump is 'not welcome' in Wisconsin
In the morning before Trump's rally, organizers and supporters for Voces De La Frontera gathered as they had for nearly 20 years to march for immigrant rights. But Trump’s visit to Waukesha was not ignored by organizers.
“You are not welcome in Wisconsin,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director for Voces. “You are the real threat to democracy. You orchestrated a failed coup with your corrupt followers and white supremacists and we reject your racist platform, that promises, dictatorship, military-style mass, deportation, and family separation.“
Democrats focus on Trump's abortion policy
In response to Trump's visit, Democrats focused on abortion access, a key message that they have delivered at Biden campaign events.
"Trump’s abortion bans are wreaking havoc across the country — something he called “incredible” today — and he’s fine with it. Because it’s all about him, not Wisconsin, and not America," said Brianna Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Biden-Harris campaign in Wisconsin.
"As president, Donald Trump delivered less jobs and paved the way for extreme abortion bans across America. His next term could be worse: more bans, more suffering, and higher costs," she said.
Trump briefly addressed abortion in his speech, repeating his position that abortion is best left up to the states. In an interview before his remarks, he declined to weigh in on whether the state Supreme Court should uphold a lower court's ruling restoring abortion access in Wisconsin.
In interview, Trump doesn't commit to accepting 2024 results
Compared to Green Bay, Trump spent less of his speech focusing on the 2020 election in Wisconsin, which he has previously falsely claimed he won. But in an interview with the Journal Sentinel, he did not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election.
"If everything's honest, I'll gladly accept the results. I don't change on that," Trump said in an interview Wednesday. "If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country."
In the interview, Trump again falsely claimed he won Wisconsin in 2020. "If you go back and look at all of the things that had been found out, it showed that I won the election in Wisconsin," Trump said. "It also showed I won the election in other locations."
Biden won Wisconsin in 2020 by just over 20,000 votes, taking 1,630,866 votes compared to Trump’s 1,610,184. Trump did win the state in 2016.
Recounts requested by Trump and reviews, even those conducted by conservatives, found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
More: Ahead of first rally in Wisconsin, Trump repeats false claims that he won the state in 2020
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Local Republican leaders urge supporters to embrace early voting
Taking the stage before Trump, Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow encouraged the crowd to vote early.
“We are going to get hammered by out-of-state money. They’re going to flood every single election that we have. If we get out and vote early, that means our dollars can be targeted to those who haven’t voted yet,” Farrow said.
Trump has long discouraged voting absentee but has recently shifted his tone. Republicans have persuaded him to change his stance to maximize the party's voting power.
But on Wednesday, Trump did not explicitly mention early voting, instead voicing support for "one-day voting with paper ballots," indicating he wouldn't support the multiple dates offered in Wisconsin to vote in-person absentee.
Before Trump's speech, Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming told reporters that he would continue promoting early voting as party chair. "The Republican National Committee will continue to do that, and so will the president."
Trump sought to throw out all in-person absentee ballots cast in the two most populous Wisconsin counties during the 2020 election. In 2023, Trump used a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling declaring absentee ballot drop boxes illegal to light a fire under his campaign to convince voters he did not lose his reelection bid.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who was meeting with supporters, also told the Journal Sentinel he was "100% against early voting."
More: Trump's Wisconsin rally amplifies GOP's mixed messaging on absentee voting
Rally held on Trump's typical day off from hush money trial
Trump's Waukesha rally was held Wednesday, typically his day off from his hush money trial in Manhattan. Trump is accused of falsifying business records during his 2016 campaign to conceal an affair.
Trump faces potential jail time if he again violates a gag order he's under as part of the court proceeding. He did not mention the case in Waukesha but generally referenced other indictments against him.
"Never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom. I'm never going to let it happen, " Trump said. "They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you."
Trump has spent most of the last couple of weeks in court, largely unable to campaign. His stop in Wisconsin is his first since the trial began, and he also scheduled a stop in Freeland, Mich., later in the day.
In the parking lot Wednesday, Bil Aldrich of DeForest called Trump “honest to a fault” and said the criminal charges he's facing are “show trials.”
“They’re BS, but he’ll prevail one way or another, even if he ends up running the country from jail,” Aldrich said.
Lindell said Trump is "the most courageous person I've ever met in my life," adding that attacks on the former president are an "anomaly in history."
Both campaigns have paid high attention to Waukesha
Democrats have also focused heavy attention on Waukesha, in suburban Milwaukee. First lady Jill Biden held an event at the same expo center in early March, where she rallied mostly women voters around abortion and health care.
Vice President Kamala Harris brought the same message to La Crosse last week, reflecting the campaign's efforts to reach voters in purple and even red areas.
In 2020, Trump won Waukesha County with about 60% of the vote, compared to Biden's 39%. Margins of victory for Republican presidential candidates in the county have dropped from 35 points in 2012 to 27 in 2016 to 21 in 2020.
More: Women campaigning for Biden take abortion issue to Republican stronghold Waukesha County
Molly Beck, Jessie Opoien, Ricardo Torres, Claudia Levens and Alison Dirr contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Economy and immigration: Takeaways from Donald Trump's Wisconsin rally
