Kamala Harris flexes muscles in Milwaukee and Chicago while Trump campaign goes limp

Donald Trump has long used the size of his rally crowds as a measure of his … let’s say “political might.”

After what Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign pulled off Tuesday night, the former president might want to rethink that metric.

In a flex of political muscle, Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz filled Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee ? the site of last month’s Republican National Convention ? floor to ceiling with screaming supporters. They did that while the United Center, 90 miles south in Chicago, was packed with Harris delegates and fans for the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

Harris taunts Trump with packed rally at site of recent RNC

Whether the Milwaukee rally was a tactically smart event targeting a key swing state or a not-so-subtle troll of Trump ? “We can fill the site of your convention while also having our convention in another city! LOL!” ? it definitively showed which side has grabbed the momentum.

Onstage in Milwaukee, Walz needled Trump: “Not only do we have massive energy at our convention, we got a hell of a lot more energy at where they had their convention, right here. ... That one guy is going to be so sad tonight. So sad, so sad.”

Harris campaign's surging energy might be sapping energy from Trump

Trump did seem sad, or at least a bit deflated, as he campaigned earlier Tuesday in Michigan, telling a small crowd how scared they should be of crime and people entering the country illegally, even as the rate of both those things has dropped precipitously.

“You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread, you get shot, you get mugged, you get raped, you get whatever it may be,” he said, describing a world that simply doesn’t exist. “And you’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it, and it’s time for a change.”

Trump's lead in Pennsylvania is gone. Vance's solution: Just don't believe it. No, really.

Trump's voice was monotone as if even he didn’t believe the fearmongering nonsense he was spouting.

JD Vance to the rescue! Or, perhaps, not.

In Wisconsin, Trump’s running mate JD Vance showed up at a Kenosha deli and, according to a social media post by journalist Reese Gorman, continued his charmless offensive by asking: “You have any food here you really don’t like? We’ll take some and feed it to the journalists on the plane.”

Always great to ask a restaurant if they serve any food gross enough to give journalists.

Vance continued to step on rakes, answering a question about how he was preparing for a VP debate with Walz by saying: “I've found a good friend from back home who embellishes and lies a lot, and I’m having him stand in for Tim Walz.”

Hmmm. Which person associated with Vance embellishes and lies a lot? Perhaps the one who just said that every bread-purchasing American gets shot or raped?

Both sides are campaigning during the DNC ? this one will be tight

Enthusiasm, overall competence and crowd sizes won’t be the only things that decide this election. The very fact that both sides are actively campaigning while the Democratic National Convention is going on tells you how competitive the race will be.

Thank the president. DNC joy over Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s sinking polls: Joe Biden made it all happen.

But if you look at the past few weeks, and if you look at the massive fundraising haul by the Harris campaign ? half a billion dollars since President Joe Biden endorsed Harris last month, according to Reuters ? and you look at two Midwestern basketball arenas filled with fired-up voters on the same night … well, I think it’s safe to discern which side is rolling.

Message disparity between Trump's campaign and Harris' is clear

In Wisconsin, Harris said this: “The reason that we are all here together, spending this time together, truly and deeply is because we love our country. We love our country. We believe in our country.”

In Michigan, Trump said this: “We’ve very close to World War III, and people don’t realize it. We’re closer than we’ve ever been, I think ever, since World War II, but this would be the war of wars, because of weaponry. This isn’t, as I say, two army tanks going back and forth shooting at each other. The level of power, the level of weaponry there is in the world today is so bad, it’s so dangerous, it’s so bad.”

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I’ll leave the final words to Walz, spoken as he enthusiastically bounded across the Milwaukee stage, teeing the crowd up for Harris and noting how the GOP’s optimism has faded: “They left here riding high. ... Well, trust me, a hell of a lot can change in four weeks. You run a campaign based on fear like them, you’re going run into a little trouble when you run into a campaign that’s based on joy.”

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris fills Milwaukee arena while DNC rolls on in Chicago