Illustration by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
Imagine my surprise when I recently learned that I’ve lived nearly my entire life in a horrible city. I never knew that. I’ve always thought Milwaukee was a pretty decent place to live. I grew up, got married, and raised a daughter here, I worked in Milwaukee Public Schools for thirty-four years, and I’ve enjoyed great concerts, festivals, theater, and art exhibitions here. I’ve dined in world-class Milwaukee restaurants there and visited some of the finest boutiques in the Midwest. But I guess it’s a horrible city—because Donald Trump says so.
I guess he would know, right? Actually, he’s made numerous stops here during his political career, probably spending a total of maybe ten hours (over eight years) speaking to his MAGA minions and shuttling between the airport and his speaking venues. I guess you can learn a lot about a city looking at it through a car window.
If he looked up during these trips, he might have seen our beautiful lakeshore, the stunningly beautiful Calatrava Art Museum, and the Mitchell Park Domes, our one-of-a-kind horticultural garden. He might have seen diverse and vibrant neighborhoods like Bay View, Metcalfe Park, Riverwest, the Third Ward, and Walker’s Point. He might have caught a glimpse one of the largest and most extensive park systems in the country.
I wonder if he drove by Marquette University or University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or Alverno University, MATC, The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the Pabst Theater, City Hall, or any of our other educational institutions or historic landmarks. If he hasn’t seen it yet, he’s sure to experience the Deer District (albeit with a herd of rather slippery pachyderms rather than our fearsome Milwaukee Bucks) and its lively after-hours night scene. It’s really too bad the convention is in such a horrible city.
Of course, our history would not tend to put us in Mr. Trump’s good graces. Milwaukee is the only American city to have elected not one, but three socialist mayors—public servants who served a total of thirty-eight years in that office. During their tenures, Mayors Dan Hoan, Emil Siedel, and Frank Ziedler created one of the best municipal park systems, public school systems, freeway system, and municipal sewer systems in the country. Their aggressive policies concerning the sanitation department were also instrumental in helping defeat the influenza epidemic of the early twentieth century. But we know socialism is a terrible thing, and that any city that had elected progressive and intelligent leadership with vision simply has to be what makes Milwaukee so horrible.
Milwaukee also has an international reputation as the city of festivals, boasting everything from Summerfest, the country’s largest music festival, to a huge number of smaller ethnic festivals including Festa Italiana, Pride Fest, Mexican Fiesta, Bastille Days, Greek fest, German fest, Irish fest, and Polish fest. And of course, we have Juneteenth Day. We do not have White Male Fest, better known as Proud Boy Fest, which could be another reason Mr. Trump has it in for Milwaukee. I doubt if you’ll catch him at Mexican Fiesta.
Maybe Donald Trump thinks Milwaukee is a horrible city simply because it doesn’t have a building with his name on it. With his tender sensibilities and easily bruised ego, the omission of his name emblazoned on some tastelessly glossy structure might have hurt his feelings. Maybe if we stenciled his name on the U.S. Bank Center Building or the Wisconsin Tower or Kilbourn Towers—or even on the local Kentucky Fried Chicken marquee—he might not think we’re quite so horrible.
For a while, it looked as if Mr. Trump was not even going to be staying in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention. It was reported that he was planning on staying in Chicago (where there is a shiny building with his name on it) and would be commuting to and from the convention, which would be a shame. Maybe if he gave the city and the people of Milwaukee a chance, he might not think we’re so horrible. But that would assume that he cares about the American people at all.
According to Snopes, at a June rally in Las Vegas, Trump told the crowd, “I don’t care about you. I only want your vote. I don’t care.” Of course, his apologists and supporters will claim he was joking, but this just might be one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time. Donald Trump has done nothing during, before, or after his tenure as president to show he gives a damn about the average American. He claims he did. He says he cut taxes, and he did—for the rich. The average taxpayer saw little or no change in their tax rate. He doesn’t care about you. All he wants is your vote. And more power.
He has packed the Supreme Court with conservative justices that have killed reproductive rights, voting rights, stripped federal agencies of autonomous authority, and given the office of the presidency immunity for nearly any criminal action. He has done virtually nothing for the people. I don’t think he even likes people. The truth is that he probably thinks Milwaukee is a horrible city because it has people in it—particularly average working-class Americans of all ethnicities.
Milwaukee, like any big city, does have its problems. Crime, racism, poverty, and a struggling public school system are just a sampling of the difficulties we are facing, but these problems do not make us a horrible city. We are working to make things better.
Truth be told, Donald Trump probably thinks we’re a horrible city simply because we are a democratic stronghold. Nearly seventy-nine percent of Milwaukee voters cast their ballots for Joe Biden in 2020. Only twenty-one percent, a little more than two out of ten voters, cast their votes for Donald Trump. It would be typical of the man to condemn an entire city because he believes they rejected him.
Fathoming the shadowy recesses of that shallow mind and attempting to understand Mr. Trump’s definition of “horrible” is at the very least a daunting task. Let’s take a closer look. It seems as if Mr. Trump has an all-consuming need to be loved, idolized, adulated. He seems to believe he should be the king of the world. He is a bully. He is a narcissist who barely acknowledges the people around him—unless he can use them. Maybe he’s projecting his own horrible attributes onto the world around him.
Horrible? I don’t think you could say Milwaukee is horrible by any metric. Even a narrow little man with a narrow little mind—if he happened to look around a little bit—would see that this is a vibrant city with a diverse and rich quality of life. No, it does not have a shiny building with his name emblazoned on it. No, it does not vote Republican.
Yes, Milwaukee is democratic. Yes, Milwaukee has strong African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Nigerian, Hmong and Somalian communities. Yes, Milwaukee celebrates its diversity. None of these elements makes us a horrible city. On the contrary, Mr. Trump’s stupid and short-sighted comment only made me realize what a great city we the privilege to live in.
If you don’t like it, Mr. Trump, go home.