Milwaukee — Did Saturday’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life change the perspective or tone of demonstrators picketing the Republican National Convention? For Mary Braun — a protester in her 60s weaning a button on her blouse reading “I Vote for Non-Felons” — the answer is a firm no. Braun pays respect to the dead and injured, but insists: “It doesn’t alter my opinion.” Asked what she might say to Trump if she saw him today, Braun lets loose: “Screw yourself. Get the fuck out of here! Get lost. You’re a fascist.”
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A strident, left-wing protest unfolded at Red Arrow City Park, across the Milwaukee River from the militarized security zone encircling the Fiserv Forum, Monday morning. There was little recognition of the attempt to kill the former president, Saturday in Pennsylvania — although one protester did hold aloft a neon placard reading: “Now will U ban automatic weapons?”
The protest was organized by the “ Coalition to March on the 2024 RNC ” — an often quite radical group dedicated to fighting the “racist and reactionary agenda of the Republican Party,” as well as to standing with Palestine. For many of the speakers and activists — particularly those focused on Israel’s war in Gaza — there was a pox on both your houses vibe to the protest, with speakers denouncing both “fascist Trump” and “Genocide Joe.” Men and women taking turns at the event’s microphone denounced U.S. imperialism, compared the state of Israel to apartheid-era South Africa, and held signs reading: “What if YOUR children were under the rubble?”
Amid more extreme elements seeking to tear down “the whole damn system,” however, there were many protesters determined to make change at the ballot box by opposing Republicans. Nadine Seiler, 59, had traveled to Milwaukee from Maryland. She spoke with a Caribbean lilt to her speech and, invoking a racist slight Trump once used against immigrants, jested that she came from the “original ‘shithole country’ of Trinidad and Tobago” nearly four decades ago.
Seiler wore close cropped hair, blue eyeliner, and a hand-painted T-shirt that read, “Stop Project 2025” — referring to the Heritage Foundation-led, far-right policy agenda for a second Trump Term . She warned that its anti-DEI planks are meant to “erase the contributions of black folks” adding: “I don’t like that.”
The turnout for Monday’s protest was in the thousands, but hardly overwhelming. Seiler pointed at the relatively small turnout to say: “I am very concerned. Hardly anybody is here. Our lack of participation is why we possibly will have somebody who is a rapist, a racist, a seditionist, a fraudster and a felon, possibly getting back into the White House — How? How!” Commenting on the attempt on Trump’s life, she insisted: “We need ballots, not bullets. Democratic voters are the majority in this country. We need to vote!”
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Speakers at the rally were not pulling their punches because of the violence against Trump. Indeed, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the activist group Voces de la Frontera Action used her speech to highlight Trump’s contributions to civic unrest. (She delivered her remarks in both Spanish and English.)
“Let’s not forget that Trump led the assault at the Capitol, resulting in six deaths, and demanded the hanging of Vice President Pence,” she said. “Or that he brought white supremacist and armed Proud Boys into the political mainstream.” Neumann-Ortiz claimed that Trump’s “dehumanizing” language and “calls for mass expulsion” have led to an increase in violent attacks on people of color and immigrants. She wrapped up her speech declaring: “We march today to say that we are not afraid of those that demonize us and promote hate and violence and division. She credited the activists in Wisconsin who “contributed to the defeat of Trump and his MAGA politics” in the 2020 election, adding: “we will do so again in 2024.”
There was considerable pride in the host city, and contempt for Trump’s disrespect. Braun held a sign reading “WELCOME TO OUR HORRIBLE CITY.” She said “this is my wonderful city,” and expressed that she was “freaking outraged” when Trump recently blasted this Wisconsin convention host metro as a “ horrible ” place.
The protest attracted a small but active group of far-right counterprotesters who flaunted their disdain for the many gay and Black people in the crowd. One held up a placard of an aborted fetus. A middle-aged white man in a red MAGA hat held aloft a bullhorn and began shouting: “Your sins have separated you from your God!” The man ranted then against what he called “perverted homosexuals.” And as the demonstrators took to the street around noon for their designated march, he could be seen tailing the crowd with an enormous banner that read: “BLM are racist thugs.”
Liberal protester Tony Srok attracted many reporters by holding up a sign reading: “Lock Him Up.” The 62-year-old Milwaukee resident said he came here because he “wanted to speak my three words.” He insisted that violence against Trump is unjustified, but does hope the former president won’t, in fact, be proven to be above the law. “People shouldn’t be getting shot. This is not how democracy works,” he says. “I want him to be held accountable for his crimes.”
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