Former President Donald Trump may have been ineloquent on Thursday in calling Milwaukee a “horrible city,” but he is right that the city has suffered from horrible, left-wing leadership.
In a meeting with congressional Republicans, Trump said, “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.” This prompted Democrats to fall over themselves defending Wisconsin‘s largest city, but without acknowledging that Milwaukee really is failing by any reasonable assessment.
Democrats put up billboards across Milwaukee with Trump’s quote about the city, but they failed to recognize that no one in Wisconsin was offended besides Milwaukee leftists. The city has an overwhelmingly Democratic population, while most of the rest of the state is strongly Republican. Many Wisconsinites loathe the special privileges that Milwaukee gets due to its size and blame the city when Democrats win statewide races.
I have lived in Wisconsin since I was four years old, and I have been to Milwaukee dozens of times. There is a lot to love: It has a great downtown, a well-developed shoreline, and a fun culture. But if you venture out too far, you enter a war zone reminiscent of Mad Max.
Milwaukee has one of the highest murder rates in the United States, and just Thursday morning, a nine-year-old, in his bedroom with a sister and cousin, was killed when someone shot through his window. The city’s violent crime is through the roof, but that only scratches the surface of its problems.
Milwaukee Public Schools are some of the worst in Wisconsin and recently faced controversy because the district failed to file important financial reports with the state, resulting in the superintendent resigning and the school board being forced to address the district’s dismal financial situation. Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson even suggested that MPS should be dissolved as a result of these failures.
Last year, state lawmakers had to save Milwaukee from bankruptcy by allowing the city to raise its sales tax without voter approval and by providing additional funding to K-12 schools. If the state had not helped, Milwaukee would have had to make drastic budget cuts because the city was reliant on federal pandemic aid to pay for essential services, and its pension system was unsustainable.
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Look, it probably was not smart for Trump to attack the city that will be hosting the Republican National Convention, even if he was only referring to its crime problem. However, not a single person outside of the Democratic Party elite actually thinks a farmer in northern Wisconsin was offended by Trump’s comments, and even the critical suburban voters likely agree with the former president’s assessment.
When you have a city as horribly mismanaged as Milwaukee and voters who continually reaffirm catastrophic policy decisions, it is perfectly reasonable to point out its failures.