Ticket Holders Denied Entrance to Trump Rally After Event is Reclassified as Press Only

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Hundreds of Trump supporters were turned away after being told their tickets would no longer get them access to his Tuesday rally in Milwaukee.

The event was initially advertised as open to the public. However, the Trump campaign decided Tuesday to restrict access to members of the press only. This came as a surprise to many people who had been waiting outside for doors to open.

“I’m surprised since I haven’t gotten anything saying it wasn’t going to be public,” said Mandy Ashenfelter, owner of a mobile hair salon in Milwaukee. “I’m upset because I closed my business today. I told people why I was closing. I could lose even more customers over just coming to something like this.”

The event was held in Milwaukee, a city that heavily swings blue during elections. The former president is campaigning to win votes in a swing state that could very well determine the outcome of the election. Although the turnout was low, that may be because some people were alerted that the rally had been switched to a press conference. Everyone didn’t get that message though.

“I thought there would’ve been many more people,” said Alex Miller of Racine. “It would’ve helped to see more people, it makes you wonder how many people actually support him or are just talk.”

Milwaukee has long favored Democratic candidates, with Joe Biden defeating Trump by a margin of 40 percent in 2020 in the county, which has led some to question why he would even focus on the area. However, in a close election any movement in the electorate could be decisive.

“If he picks off 1 percent in Milwaukee it could be the difference,” said supporter Jennie Dillon. “It could be as simple as people driving by and seeing the line out here and saying they look pretty normal.”

She isn’t wrong, if 1 percent of voters who favored Biden last election had voted for Trump he would have won Wisconsin. Trump lost in Wisconsin in 2020 by a margin of 20,608 votes. He won the state in 2016.

The Harris campaign knows how important winning in Wisconsin will be, which is why they haven’t taken the battleground state for granted. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff hosted an event in Milwaukee County as well Tuesday afternoon to discuss the importance of small business growth in the Harris agenda and meet with local small business owners.