Takeaways from President Joe Biden's trip to Milwaukee

Note: This story has been corrected to reflect President Joe Biden's birthplace.

President Joe Biden visited Milwaukee Wednesday to highlight a multi-million dollar investment toward the city's "complete streets" initiative and stop at the campaign's new Wisconsin headquarters in the critical swing state.

Wednesday marks Biden's second visit to Wisconsin after a trip to the border city of Superior in January . On Thursday, Biden will head to Saginaw, Michigan, after staying overnight in Milwaukee.

Here are the takeaways from Biden's visit, the "complete streets" project, and why the campaign is narrowing in on Wisconsin.

Biden continues economic message with 'complete streets' investment

During his visit, Biden highlighted $36.6 million in federal funds being allocated from the Infrastructure Act for a project to convert a 2.6-mile section of Sixth Street to a "complete street."

Milwaukee's complete streets efforts  seek to make streets safe and convenient to pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and anyone else who wants to use them, regardless of age or ability.

More: What to know about the Sixth Street 'complete streets' project President Joe Biden plans to highlight in Milwaukee

At the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club, Biden said the project is for the "future" of the children who utilize the community center. He lamented the effects of interstate infrastructure of decades ago splitting predominantly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia — Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

"The same thing happened here," Biden said of Milwaukee. "Imagine all those homes, those mom and pop stores, that could have been passed down (to other generations)."

"The story of Bronzeville here in Milwaukee is one that we see all across the country. Our interstate highway system laid out in the 50s was a groundbreaking connection of a nation's coast to coast," Biden said at Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club on Sixth Street W. Cherry. 

"The purpose of it was to transform the way people live, work and travel. Instead of connecting communities, it divided. These highways actually tore them apart."

More: These timelapses show Milwaukee transforming over 70 years, from Bronzeville to American Family Field

Past visits from the administration have focused on building up the economy through infrastructure, including Vice President Kamala Harris' stop at a future Madison Metro Transit facility last week , where she announced an executive order to promote apprenticeships.

Republicans responded by knocking 'Bidenomics'

Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming this week blasted Biden's decision to tout the federal investment in the Sixth Street corridor.

“Instead of paying us a visit to brag about his abysmal record, the President should be offering working families an apology for Bidenomics," he said in a statement. 

Republicans in the state have responded to administration visits by citing how the lingering effects of inflation impact voters. During Harris' visit, Schimming called the visits "rescue missions" to the Democratic base in Wisconsin.

Former President Donald Trump, who is all but certain to face Biden in a rematch this November, has not yet visited Wisconsin this election cycle.

More: In Marquette's latest poll of Wisconsin voters, a parade of red flags for Biden and Trump

Campaign putting an emphasis on Milwaukee

Biden is also expected to stop at his campaign's new headquarters in Milwaukee, located at 252 E Highland Ave. This year is the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has made Milwaukee a state campaign headquarters in at least two decades.

Campaign officials have said the location reflects the campaign's focus on Black and Latino voters and suburban women in the Milwaukee area. First lady Jill Biden visited Waukesha earlier this month to speak to women voters about abortion and health care.

At the headquarters, Biden spoke to supporters and highlighted the opening of more than 40 other campaign offices in the state.“Here in Milwaukee specifically, but Wisconsin generally and several other states, it’s going to get down to knocking on doors the old-fashioned way,” Biden said.

“Folks, look, you’ve got a lot to do. There’s an awful lot at stake in this campaign,” Biden said.

Biden also visited Milwaukee in December , where he spoke at the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce to announce new directives intended to support small businesses and highlight his administration's support for Black-owned businesses.

Black voters in Milwaukee have expressed a lack of enthusiasm for a rematch of 2020 between Biden and Trump.

Protesters of the war in Gaza made their presence felt

Protesters gathered in Milwaukee's Red Arrow Park, a couple of blocks from the Biden campaign headquarters, to demand Biden push more strongly for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Echoing movements in Michigan and Minnesota, they said they would not vote for him in Wisconsin's April 2 primary as a demonstration of their outrage over the United States' handling of the Israel-Hamas war and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

"They will definitely lose this election if they don't listen to their constituents," said Janan Najeeb, president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition.

Molly Beck and Sophie Carson contributed to this story.

President Biden to visit Milwaukee, tout economy as 2024 nears

Biden to visit milwaukee, tout economy.

President Joe Biden will visit Milwaukee to discuss the economy Dec. 20. It will be his third stop in battleground Wisconsin this year.

MILWAUKEE - President Joe Biden will visit Milwaukee to discuss the economy Wednesday, Dec. 20.

The road to the White House runs through Wisconsin ; its status as a battleground state is something on which Democrats and Republicans agree.  

"As goes Wisconsin , so goes the nation," said Chris Walton, former Milwaukee County Democratic chair. "We are the deciders in this country of the presidential election." 

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"The presidential election will once again come down to the state of Wisconsin ," said U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R- Wisconsin ). 

Political forecasters at the Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia Center for Politics both consider Wisconsin one of four toss-up states. If you don't believe it, check out the president and vice president's schedules.

presidential visit milwaukee

President Biden arrives in Milwaukee

Wednesday marks Biden 's third trip to Wisconsin this year alone. Vice President Kamala Harris just announced she's coming to Wisconsin next month. It's the state where Republicans will host their 2024 National Convention – the same place Democrats chose in 2020.

Biden ’s team said the president will discuss what they call "Bidenomics" and a small business boom Wednesday. The White House reports a record number of new business applications: 14.6 million.

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"I think it’s going to be about how good the economy is getting. The economy is growing very steadily, over 5% in the last quarter," Walton said. "We’re looking at over 14 million new jobs created in this administration, an unemployment rate at about 3.5%. We are booming economically.

"(The) Black unemployment rate nationwide is at the lowest it’s been in history. These are stats we can throw off and throw out, but we need to make sure those stats can be felt."

Republicans look to counter on the key election issue.

presidential visit milwaukee

"I think it’s good the president is coming to Milwaukee, but I hope that he talks to people who are actually suffering under Bidenonomics. Everything is 17% more expensive than when the president took office. In large part that’s due to his policies that have driven inflation higher, particularly reckless spending.

"People have been clobbered by Bidenomics. People have been unable to afford the things that their families need. And I think we need to dramatically change course in this country."

With control of the White House on the line, campaigns and candidates have roughly 320 days to win your vote. As this week shows, they're already trying.

A national Marquette University Law School poll found 73% of American voters rated the economy either "poor" or "not so good." The same poll found 51% thought Donald Trump would do a better job on the economy, while 30% thought Biden would do better.

presidential visit milwaukee

President Biden's Racine County visit to highlight huge expansion of Microsoft data center

President Joe Biden's visit to Racine County on Wednesday will highlight a massive increase in the scale of Microsoft's data center development in Mount Pleasant.

Microsoft has begun construction of its first data center building in the village's Wisconsin Innovation Park and has pledged a minimum value of $1 billion on the first phase of the development .

That investment is "just the tip of the iceberg," for Microsoft's involvement in Racine County, a source said Friday.

Get daily updates on the Packers during the season.

Wednesday's announcement is expected to be an expansion that's multiple times larger and create far more jobs than what has to date been made public about Microsoft's data center plan.

No details about the focus or location of Biden's visit have been made public. But it will give Biden an opportunity to contrast the rapidly expanding Microsoft project with the failed Foxconn project at the same site which was touted by former president Donald Trump - Biden's Republican opponent in November - as the "eighth wonder of the world."

Key Microsoft executive Brad Smith lays groundwork

Biden is coming a week after Microsoft President Brad Smith spent several days in southeast Wisconsin meeting behind closed doors with business leaders, educators and other local officials.

Microsoft inked its first deal to develop a data center in Mount Pleasant in 2022, when it paid $50 million for 315 acres at 90th Street and County KR. Construction of the first data center building is under way and a second is planned on that site. One of the buildings will include an attached two-story office building according to conceptual drawings submitted to the village.

Last month, the company received the village board's approval to begin grading the southern portion of a parcel to the west in preparation for additional construction. Microsoft acquired that land in December as part of a massive 1,030-acre purchase of industrial park land that had formerly been under option to Foxconn Technology Group.

More: How Microsoft's purchase of 1,000 acres in Mount Pleasant could lead to a decade of construction

At the time, AJ Steinbrecher, Microsoft's director of North America land acquisition for cloud infrastructure, told the village board the company's plan in Mount Pleasant was "to invest billions in the development of our cloud infrastructure."

Village officials were unavailable for comment Friday regarding any additional changes to Microsoft's plans.

A global push to meet AI demand

The Mount Pleasant data center project is part of a global push by Microsoft and its tech-industry competitors to build out a global network of data centers to meet the growing demand for cloud computing and AI technology and services. Microsoft alone operates more than 300 data centers around the globe .

The industrial park was developed as part of a multi-billion package of incentives to lure Foxconn, the Taiwanese tech company, to Wisconsin. As the deal was negotiated, Foxconn said it intended to build a high-tech LCD screen manufacturing plant in the park that would create 13,000 jobs. That plan did not materialize; the company now employs about 1,000 people who make computer data servers and power converters for rooftop solar installations.

Foxconn's agreement to give up its options to allow the sale of the land north and east of its campus amounted to its first public acknowledgment that its Wisconsin plans had been dramatically scaled back.

Data centers typically employ only a couple hundred people, but village officials have focused on the economic impact of Microsoft's multi-billion investment in terms of tax revenue and raising the profile of the region as a technology hub.

As part of the December land sale and developer agreement, Microsoft boosted the guaranteed minimum taxable value of its future buildings to $1.4 billion , the amount needed to generate enough tax revenue to pay off the debt the village accrued as it developed the business park.

Foxconn has a similar obligation and this year for the first time special payments equal to the $1.4 billion value even though the value of its property is only about $500 million.

Combined, those valuations would allow the village to retire the tax incremental financing district before its scheduled end in 2047.

Microsoft last fall also signed a partnership with Gateway Technical College to jointly develop a  Microsoft Datacenter Academy , a training and certification program for cloud computing and information technology careers. The agreement follows several other Microsoft funded workforce and education initiatives including the Techspark, STEM program it started in northeast Wisconsin in 2017 and a  $1.25 million  gift in 2019 to UW-Milwaukee's  Connected Systems Institute  which brings engineering and business students together to explore new uses for smart technology in manufacturing industries.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella , a UWM alumnus, and his wife Anu Nadella in gave $2 million to UWM to establish the Fund for Diversity in Tech Education, which supports pre-college tech-education programming for K-12 students, scholarships, and mentoring and tutoring for UWM students.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: President Biden's Racine County visit to highlight huge expansion of Microsoft data center

We Energies filed a plan for building electric infrastructure for Microsft, a construction update says pile driving is wrapping up and above ground work has begun on the first building on Friday March 1, 2024 in Mount Pleasant, Wis.

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Presidential visit causes parking headache in downtown milwaukee.

Due to the president staying overnight Milwaukee, several blocks surrounding the Pfister hotel have been blocked off and tow away zones are in effect.

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Due to President Joe Biden staying overnight Milwaukee Wednesday, several blocks surrounding the Pfister hotel have been blocked off, and tow-away zones are in effect.

The president, in part, will be in Milwaukee to announce billions in infrastructure projects for local communities. That includes $36 million for Milwaukee.

Biden will be speaking at the Pieper-Hillside Boys and Girls Club in Milwaukee on Wednesday afternoon to announce billions in infrastructure projects for local communities. It includes $36 million for Milwaukee.

Later, he'll attend a private campaign event and then will then stay overnight in Milwaukee before a visit to Michigan on Thursday.

The Pfister Hotel said they would neither confirm nor deny the president is staying there during his visit. However, the hotel is the only hotel downtown surrounded by barricades, tow-away zones, and road closures.

Those security measures are greatly impacting the amount of parking available downtown.

Shaun Remp, a Union Painter working on a job downtown near the Pfister, said parking was so difficult on Wednesday that some of his coworkers just went back home after circling the block for so long.

"Just lack of parking, a lot of stuff going on, everything blocked off," Remp said. "Just not your normal, every day down here. All the barricades going up, the no parking signs on the meters, the tow away zones, basically perimeters blocked off around the hotel."

Nearly every president since William McKinley in 1899 has stayed at the Pfister Hotel. In 2022 WISN 12 News got an inside look at where some of the presidents have rested their heads while in Milwaukee.

President Joe Biden speaks at the Hillside Boys and Girls Club in Milwaukee

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President Joe Biden Will Visit Racine Next Week, His Fourth trip To Wisconsin In 2024

Biden is expected to tout his "Investing in America" agenda

President Joe Biden speaks Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee, Wis. (Angela Major/WPR)

President Joe Biden speaks Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee, Wis. (Angela Major/WPR)

President Joe Biden is making his fourth visit to Wisconsin this year with a trip to Racine next week.

Biden will travel to Racine on Wednesday to “deliver remarks on his Investing in America agenda,” according to a statement from the White House. He’ll then participate in a campaign event. The White House has not yet said where exactly the president will visit.

The trip comes days after former President Donald Trump was in Waukesha to fire up his base . Trump, on a break from his criminal trial in New York , hammered Biden’s economic agenda during that visit.

Biden is narrowly leading Trump in the polls, according to newly released polling from NPR and Marist College . That national poll found Biden was leading Trump 50 percent to 48 percent among registered voters. The poll found Trump has a 56 percent unfavorability rating, and Biden has a 54 percent unfavorability rating.

Biden was last in Wisconsin in April as he visited Madison to announce a new plan that would knock out unpaid student loan interest for millions of borrowers. He also visited Milwaukee in March to announce new federal funding for transportation infrastructure.

Wisconsin will be a key swing state in this November’s election. Trump won the state narrowly in 2016, by about 0.77 percent, and Biden won by an equally narrow margin — 0.63 percent — in 2020.

President Joe Biden to visit Racine next week, his fourth trip to Wisconsin this year was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

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President Joe Biden to visit Racine next week, his fourth trip to Wisconsin this year

Biden is expected to tout his Investing in America agenda

presidential visit milwaukee

President Joe Biden is making his fourth visit to Wisconsin this year with a trip to Racine next week.

Biden will travel to Racine on Wednesday to “deliver remarks on his Investing in America agenda,” according to a statement from the White House. He’ll then participate in a campaign event. The White House has not yet said where exactly the president will visit.

The trip comes days after former President Donald Trump was in Waukesha to fire up his base . Trump, on a break from his criminal trial in New York , hammered Biden’s economic agenda during that visit. 

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

presidential visit milwaukee

Biden is narrowly leading Trump in the polls, according to newly released polling from NPR and Marist College . That national poll found Biden was leading Trump 50 percent to 48 percent among registered voters. The poll found Trump has a 56 percent unfavorability rating, and Biden has a 54 percent unfavorability rating.

Biden was last in Wisconsin in April as he visited Madison to announce a new plan that would knock out unpaid student loan interest for millions of borrowers. He also visited Milwaukee in March to announce new federal funding for transportation infrastructure. 

Wisconsin will be a key swing state in this November’s election. Trump won the state narrowly in 2016, by about 0.77 percent, and Biden won by an equally narrow margin — 0.63 percent — in 2020.

Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.

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TMJ4 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

President Joe Biden to visit Racine on May 8; 4th visit to Wisconsin in 2024

presidential visit milwaukee

President Joe Biden will visit Wisconsin once again next week.

On Wednesday, May 8, the president will visit Racine, the White House said early Friday morning.

President Biden will "deliver remarks on his Investing in America agenda." Afterwards, he will host a campaign event.

The White House said that President Biden will travel to Chicago for a campaign reception following his visit to Wisconsin.

Next week's visit will mark the fourth time in 2024 that Biden has visited the Badger State. He visited Superior in January, Milwaukee in March, and Madison in April.

The White House said additional details would be released at a later date.

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Former President Donald Trump talks about immigration, economy in Waukesha: recap of Wednesday's rally

Former President Donald Trump was in Waukesha Wednesday for his second rally of the presidential campaign in Wisconsin, speaking at the Waukesha County Expo Center.

Trump's visit comes off the heels of the latest Marquette University Law School poll, which showed him with a two-percentage point lead over President Joe Biden, well within the margin of error. Wisconsin is one of just a handful of contested states that will  decide the next presidential election .

Trump was last in Wisconsin on April 2, when he held a rally in Green Bay . The Waukesha rally is Trump's first campaign event since the start of his hush money trial in Manhattan.

Here's a recap of the day's events:

Immigration, economy major 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."

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

"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 for deciding who to vote for. Immigration and border security was the second, with 21% citing that issue.

More: Takeaways from Donald Trump's Wisconsin rally: economy, immigration, early voting

— Hope Karnopp

Democrats focus on abortion policy in response

In response to Trump's visit, Democrats focused on abortion access, a key message that they've 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."

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.

Wisconsin chairman of Republican Party will continue promoting early voting

Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming told reporters he will continue promoting early voting.

“The Republican National Committee will continue to do that, and so will the president,” Schimming said.

Trump has sent mixed messages on early voting, but has recently shifted his tone. Following the 2020 election, Trump sought to throw out ballots cast in-person absentee in Milwaukee and Dane counties.

Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow also asked the crowd to vote early.

“We are going to get hammered by out-of-state money," Farrow said. "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.”

Staunch Trump ally Mike Lindell splits off over early voting stance

One of Trump’s staunchest allies Wednesday split from the former president on a key issue to the 2024 election cycle: early voting.

Mike Lindell, a pillow manufacturer and one of the most prominent purveyors of Trump’s false election claims, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he didn't support the former president’s recent about-face on absentee voting.

“I’m 100% against voting early. I always will be," Lindell said. "It’s harder for (Democrats) to cheat with same-day voting."

Trump has long encouraged supporters to abstain from voting absentee and sought to throw out all in-person absentee ballots cast in the two most populous Wisconsin counties during the 2020 election. But Republicans have persuaded Trump to change his stance on the voting option to encourage GOP voters to maximize their voting power.

Lindell, who was meeting with rally attendees Wednesday outside of the Waukesha County Expo Center, also promoted the recall of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who has become a target of Trump and his allies over his unwillingness to take steps to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss.

“Robin Vos has to go,” Lindell said. “Vos is the most toxic politician I’ve ever come across.”

— Claudia Levens and Molly Beck

Supporters begin filing into venue for Trump rally

Supporters are slowly beginning to filter in to the Waukesha County Expo Center, where Trump is set to take the stage at 2 p.m.

A large crowd waited outside the expo center long before doors opened, forming a line that snaked through part of the parking lot.

More: Trump backers flock to Wisconsin rally, shrug off break from hush money trial

Vendors sell Trump merchandise outside rally

Steven Reid, 38, of Tennessee wound through the line of Trump supporters before the doors opened Wednesday trying to sell merchandise.

On his cart were hats, keychains, bracelets and more. He said many people already seemed to have hats, though.

“Sometimes they buy stuff and sometimes they don’t,” said Reid, who said he travels the country selling merchandise at Trump rallies.

— Alison Dirr

Biden campaign slams Trump for 'harmful' working-class policies

Ahead of Trump’s visit to Waukesha, the Biden campaign slammed Trump for his backing of policies the Biden campaign characterizes as being harmful to “working people here in Wisconsin,” citing tax cuts for corporations and the nation’s wealthiest residents.

“Wisconsinites can’t continue to pay the price while Trump only looks out for himself and his rich donors,” Biden’s Wisconsin communications director Brianna Johnson said in a statement.

“Enough is enough. Wisconsinites are throwing their support behind President Biden because his focus is on empowering American workers. He oversaw the fastest rate of union growth in Wisconsin in the last 30 years, became the first sitting president to join a picket line, and just last week announced plans to put more money in workers’ pockets by getting them the overtime pay they deserve."

— Molly Beck

Milwaukee protest organizers denounce Trump visit

On the Southside of Milwaukee, 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.“

And while Trump’s visit gathered attention from organizers, so did the protest encampments at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. Students on those campuses and others around the country have been organizing demonstrations against their universities' involvement with the Israeli government and its action against Palestinians in Gaza.

Omar Flores, co-chair for the Coalition to March on the RNC, said the police response to the encampments 'will inform us of how they will treat us during the RNC.'

“The city of Milwaukee and nearby municipalities plan to roll out the red carpet for the Republicans and their hateful agenda, and the residents will do everything they can to reject hate in our communities,” Flores said.

But the Biden administration received some criticism from activists for its backing of Israel in its conflict with Palestinians.

“We see that the US government found $26 billion to finance Israel’s bombardment and destruction of Gaza over 30 hospitals and can’t find the funds to keep maternity wards here in Milwaukee open,” said Dr. Roa Qato, gynecologist and co-leader of the Milwaukee Chapter of Healthcare Workers for Palestine.

“We see families under Biden, and under Trump, struggling to make ends meet and to be able to pay for necessary medical supplies and medication.”

— Ricardo Torres

Crowd gets to Trump rally in Waukesha early

Bil Aldrich, 51, of DeForest pulled up to the rally before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in a truck flying a Trump 2020 flag that he said he keeps up even when he's not at an event.

He said he goes to every Trump rally he can, and this is his sixth since October 2020.

“They’re fun, great people,” he said. “Every stranger is a better friend than some of my closest family.”

He 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.

Trump under gag order about Stormy Daniels trial

Trump is taking advantage of a rare mid-week day out of a New York courtroom where he's on trial for allegedly paying off a porn star to be quiet about a past sexual relationship during his first campaign for president. 

But Trump faces potential jail time if he again violates a gag order he's under as part of the court proceeding, making it unlikely he'll mention the case in Waukesha.

Trump was fined after he posted on his social media site Truth Social about potential witnesses in the case, including his former attorney, Michael Cohen, and the porn star at the center of the case, Stormy Daniels. 

New York Judge Juan Merchan fined Trump $10,000 for the posts, which he deemed a violation of the gag order, and said Trump should be able to campaign freely and defend himself against political attacks but that he not willfully violate the court’s orders. 

“If necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, (the court) will impose an incarceratory punishment,” Merchan wrote. 

Where is Donald Trump speaking Wednesday?

Trump is holding his rally at the Waukesha County Expo Center, where he speak at around 2 p.m.

The same expo center was used in early March when first lady Jill Biden rallied a crowd of mostly women voters around abortion and health care.

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.

What will Donald Trump talk about in Wisconsin on Wednesday?

Trump will "contrast the peace, prosperity and security of his first term with Joe Biden’s failed presidency," his campaign said.

At his Green Bay rally, Trump tore into Biden over his administration's handling of immigration issues at the southern border. The Marquette poll showed Wisconsin voters see Trump better at handling immigration and border security.

Trump also promised to keep Social Security intact if reelected. In that same poll, voters said Biden would do a better job of handling Medicare and Social Security.

Trump also repeated false claims that he won the 2020 election in Wisconsin. Biden won Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes in 2020, a defeat that was key to Trump's reelection loss that year.

Trump again won't commit to accepting the presidential election results

Donald Trump Holds A Campaign Rally In Waukesha, Wisconsin

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday wouldn’t commit to accepting the 2024 presidential election results — echoing comments he made during the 2020 election campaign.

“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also repeated his false claim that he beat Joe Biden in Wisconsin in the 2020 election.

“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 told the Journal Sentinel. “It also showed I won the election in other locations.”

At a CNN town hall event last year, Trump also refused to commit to accepting the results.

In recent interviews with Time magazine , Trump said that while he didn't think there would be political violence if he wins this year's contest against Biden, "It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

“We’re way ahead," Trump said before repeating his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. "I don’t think they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time, which were horrible. Absolutely horrible. So many, so many different things they did, which were in total violation of what was supposed to be happening. And you know that and everybody knows that. We can recite them, go down a list that would be an arm’s long. But I don’t think we’re going to have that. I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

At a rally in Freehand, Michigan, on Wednesday, Trump announced a joint effort with the Republican National Committee, dubbed “Protect the Vote,” which he described as an effort to “ensure what happened in 2020 will never happen again.”

“We’re not going to allow it to happen,” Trump said.

Trump’s campaign and the RNC last month also vowed to deploy 100,000 volunteers and attorneys to battleground states to monitor early voting, mail-in ballots, Election Day voting and any recounts, part of an effort they described as “protecting the vote and ensure a big win” in November.

presidential visit milwaukee

Summer Concepcion is a politics reporter for NBC News.

presidential visit milwaukee

Jake Traylor is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.

IMAGES

  1. President Trump visits Milwaukee ahead of 2020 election [PHOTOS]

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  2. Presidential visit in Milwaukee

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  3. President Biden to visit Milwaukee next week in 1st official trip

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  6. Biden makes a hit with union workers in Labor Day visit to Milwaukee

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