Trump campaign disputes report he will stay in Chicago during Republican National Convention

A Milwaukee police source told the Journal Sentinel that Donald Trump intended to stay in Chicago and commute to Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July — a plan the former president’s campaign spokeswoman denied existed.

The denial Tuesday comes as ABC7 in Chicago and the New York Times reported that the presumptive presidential nominee had planned to stay in the Windy City during the convention.

ABC7 cited an unnamed high-ranking law enforcement source who told the television station that Trump planned to commute to Milwaukee, with a second source confirming the account and a third saying he is making plans to stay in Chicago.

The New York Times reported that Trump had planned to stay at a Trump hotel in Chicago but that changed Tuesday after reporters from the Times and Chicago station started asking about it.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told the Journal Sentinel that Trump would be staying in Milwaukee for the RNC.

The convention is set for July 15-18 at Fiserv Forum, the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and the Baird Center. The Democrats will meet for their convention in Chicago, Aug. 19-22.

At the RNC, Trump is expected to accept the party's nomination to run for a second term in the White House.

The Nov. 5 election is expected to be a rematch of the 2020 race between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. Biden unseated Trump, winning the critical swing state of Wisconsin along the way. Biden narrowly beat Trump in the state by about 20,000 votes in 2020 — just four years after Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by a similar margin.

Wisconsin will again be a key battleground state in 2024.

In a statement, a Biden spokesperson slammed Trump.

"Of course Donald Trump doesn’t want to stay in Milwaukee, he thinks it’s a 'horrible' city,'" Garren Randolph, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said in a statement in which he referenced a comment Trump made about Milwaukee to House Republicans on Capitol Hill last week. The comment, reported by Punchbowl News, was confirmed by GOP members in the Capitol Hill meeting.

"We don’t want him here either – Wisconsinites rejected him four years ago and we will again this November," Randolph said.

The former president and his supporters, as well as GOP lawmakers, have offered shifting explanations of why Trump called Milwaukee "horrible" — with some saying he was referring to crime in the city while others said he was referring to election issues. Trump later told Fox News he was referring to crime issues.

More: Trump supporters at Racine rally weigh in on 'horrible' Milwaukee, hush money convictions

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Mary Spicuzza can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump campaign disputes report he will stay in Chicago during RNC