Jobs report, 'this stupid mic' and other takeaways from Donald Trump's Fiserv Forum rally
In what may be his final swing through Wisconsin ahead of Tuesday's election, former President Donald Trump returned to the Milwaukee arena where he formally accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination just a few months ago.
Trump told his supporters at Fiserv Forum on Friday night that if he is elected, "America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before."
It was just in July that Trump took the stage at Fiserv Forum during the Republican National Convention to formally accept the party's nomination during the four-day event.
Vice President Kamala Harris subsequently took over the RNC venue for a rally of her own during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
And on Friday, Harris held a competing rally and concert just six miles away at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center.
Trump and Harris are each hoping to win this battleground state as they vie for the White House.
Here are some takeaways from Trump's rally in Milwaukee:
Trump slams economy, jobs report
Trump slammed the latest jobs report as "pitiful" and said the economy "stinks."
The jobs report showed hiring slowed significantly as employers added just 12,000 jobs in October. Two Southeast hurricanes and several worker strikes were expected to lower the total, but it was still much lower than anticipated, USA TODAY reported.
The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1%, the Labor Department said Friday.
He also promoted tariffs — taxes imposed by the government when foreign goods enter the U.S. — saying it was "the most beautiful word in the entire dictionary."
“You’re gonna become so rich with the word tariff,” he told the crowd.
Economists say tariffs would result in increased prices for consumers.
Mic issue irks Trump: 'I'm working my ass off with this stupid mic'
Trump relatively early in his speech pulled the mic off the stand when people in the audience said they couldn’t hear.
He ended up holding the mic and after a while started complaining that it was heavy.
“Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage? … I am up here seething. I’m working my ass off with this stupid mic,” Trump said. "I'm blowing out my left arm, now I'm blowing out my right arm and I'm blowing out my damn throat, too, because these stupid people."
His discussion of the mic issue continued for a while, including his miming of the mic stand being too low. At one point he appeared to get tired of holding it.
RFK Jr. tells Trump supporters when they cast their ballots, 'Don't vote for me'
Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Trump supporters to cast their votes for Trump and not for him.
Kennedy, who dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed Trump, is still on the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan.
He sued to remove himself from the Wisconsin ballot in early September, but Wisconsin law holds that anyone who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot — which Kennedy did — cannot decline the nomination.
Republicans worry he could draw votes from Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan — two key battleground states.
“When you go to the voting booth on Tuesday, you’re going to see my name on the ballot,” he said. “I do not want your vote. I want you to vote for Donald Trump.”
Trump claims, falsely, that he won Wisconsin twice
Trump claimed he won Wisconsin twice when, in fact, he only won the battleground state in the 2016 presidential election but not in 2020.
"I did win it, despite your difficulty," he said of 2016. "I actually won it twice, but these are minor details."
In 2020, voters delivered President Joe Biden a victory by about 21,000 votes after electing Trump by a similar margin just four years earlier. The state's 2020 election outcome has been confirmed by recounts Trump paid for, court rulings, a nonpartisan state audit and a study by a prominent conservative group.
Like during the RNC, the crowd mimics Trump's look
At the RNC, supporters donned ear patches of gauze, cotton or napkins that mimicked the one Trump wore at the convention after surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania just days earlier.
Trump on Friday recalled the patch he wore.
"We had a little event here, you know. ... That was the convention," he said of Fiserv Forum, adding that he was a "little embarrassed walking out with a patch."
On Friday, in addition to their distinct red hats, some supporters added yellow or orange safety vests in an imitation of the reflective vest Trump wore throughout a rally near Green Bay on Wednesday.
The vest was meant to highlight President Joe Biden's apparent reference to Trump supporters as “garbage” in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage" at a Trump rally on Sunday in New York.
Biden and the White House quickly sought to clarify that Biden was referencing Hinchcliffe specifically. Harris also distanced herself from Biden's remark.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson slams Trump ahead of Fiserv Forum rally
In a statement from Harris's campaign, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson recalled Trump's comments ahead of the RNC in which he called Milwaukee a "horrible city."
"Donald Trump calls us a ‘horrible’ city and spends every visit here complaining about his own problems instead of proposing any solutions to make our lives better," Johnson said. "That’s not what Milwaukee and Wisconsin are about."
Johnson, a Democrat and vocal supporter of the vice president, said Harris would "fight for all of us and chart a hopeful, more optimistic vision for the future."
Lawrence Andrea of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.
Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Takeaways from Donald Trump's return to Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum