Some Donald Trump supporters took a nap on the sidewalk outside his rally in Racine, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, hoping their shot would be one of the first in.
Hundreds of people showed up in the early morning hours for the rally 30 miles outside Milwaukee, just days after Trump reportedly called it a “horrible city” during a meeting with Republican lawmakers at the Capitol last week. .
An attendee at the rally outside Racine Festival Park showed off a thigh tattoo that read “Made in America” beneath a portrait of Trump.
Several other supporters donned black and orange prison T-shirts with the former president’s mug shot in Georgia and messages encouraging Trump to “Never Give Up” despite the four criminal cases against him.
The rally in Wisconsin comes less than a month after a jury in Manhattan found Trump guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying business records related to a money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. .
A supporter at the Racine, Wisconsin, rally on Tuesday showed off his thigh tattoo of a portrait of Donald Trump with the words: “Made in America.”
Rally-goers lined up hours before entry to the event opened, and some took naps as they waited for their chance to be one of the first inside Racine Festival Park.
Trump is scheduled to return to Wisconsin next month for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he is expected to officially become the party’s 2024 nominee.
Wisconsin is a vital battleground in November and one of the critical states for winning the White House in 2024.
Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by just 0.7 percent. But the state turned blue in 2020 for President Joe Biden by a 0.6 percent margin.
“Thousands of Wisconsinites will gather in Racine to show their support for President Donald J. Trump,” Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesman Jacob Fischer said in a statement before Trump’s arrival.
“In less than a month, tens of thousands will gather in Wisconsin as President Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination,” he added. “His America First agenda will end Joe Biden’s crippling inflation, sky-high prices, border crisis and rampant crime, making America great again.”
Some outcry occurred after Trump called Milwaukee a “horrible city” during a meeting with Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C. last Thursday. But the Trump campaign, as well as many who attended the Capitol Hill Club event with the former president, claim the media took the comment out of context.
‘In a desperate attempt to get likes, Fake News Jake Sherman, who wasn’t even in the room, falsely claimed that President Trump called Milwaukee a ‘horrible city.’ “It’s a total lie,” wrote Trump’s deputy communications director, Dylan Johnson.
He added: “President Trump was explicitly addressing the problems in Milwaukee, specifically violent crime and voter fraud.”
Trump still faces three more cases with dozens more felony charges against him in Georgia, Washington DC and Florida.
Many of those waiting in line wore “Never Give Up” T-shirts with images of Trump’s infamous mugshot from the case against him in Georgia.
Others wore T-shirts splashed with images of the former president and others wore patriotic or pro-Trump attire.
As temperatures climbed into the 80s ahead of Trump’s arrival in Wisconsin on Tuesday, a video played of the former president encouraging his supporters to “make a plan” to vote if they can’t make it on Election Day in November.
After years of denouncing fraud surrounding mail-in voting, Trump is now pushing his base to embrace the tool in order to “flood” Democrats in the 2024 election.
“Keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat,” Trump said in the clip played to the audience.