At Fiserv Forum, home to the city’s professional basketball team, the Republican National Convention began its first day still reeling after a gunman opened fire at the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The gathering buzzed with defiant energy as delegates formally nominated Trump and prepared to greet his newly chosen running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R) of Ohio.
Outside, about 3,000 people filled a park near the arena, including representatives from more than 100 activist groups, in a long-planned protest against the GOP’s positions. The coalition said in its platform that it opposes the Republicans’ “racist and reactionary agenda,” which organizers said threatens the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and immigrants.
The two events — the convention and the protest — served as two early tests of how Americans would react to the first assassination attempt on a president or candidate in more than 40 years, coming during what was already one of the darkest and most divisive eras in recent history. The early indication: Little appears to have changed on either side.
For Trump supporters, the shooting only strengthened their resolve, becoming the latest and biggest grievance that fueled a campaign focused on retaliation.
Meanwhile, anti-Trump protesters faced the more delicate task of condemning the man they see as an existential threat to democracy while simultaneously condemning the violent act that threatened his life. And the language of the protest left little room for nuance.
The organizers were careful to name all forms of political violence, but otherwise they changed little in their rhetoric.
“Defeating the Republican agenda is a matter of life and death for working and oppressed people,” said Kobi Guillory of the The Freedom Road Socialist Organization warned the crowd of protesters as they prepared to march to the convention site.
Few speakers mentioned Saturday’s shooting, and rally coordinators said it had no bearing on their plans. It remains more important than ever to be as vocal as possible against the GOP agenda, they said.
“If we can’t do it now, will we do it when it’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ time?” said 69-year-old protest-goer Jackie Sparks, referring to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel set in a totalitarian society. “I hope it doesn’t have to come to that.”
Sparks, who traveled from Chicago to protest, said both the left and the right have contributed to the corrosive political discourse, but that one side bears far more blame.
“There is divisive rhetoric on both sides, but the most violent rhetoric is from Trump,” she said.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, head of Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin’s largest immigrant rights group, said the country’s most vulnerable residents are still dealing with the dangerous consequences of Trump’s first term.
“It is undeniable that Trump’s rhetoric, policies and actions have contributed to a climate of increased violence and hate crimes by white nationalists, particularly against people of color,” she said.
In response to a question about the shooting, Omar Flores, co-chair of the Coalition to March at the RNC, said, “I think Republicans are experts on political violence.”
The protest drew participants from across the country, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Detroit and D.C., ranging in ideology from Democratic die-hards to far-left establishment critics. Many said they were making the trip because the stakes of the November election had never been higher.
“If I have a message for the American people, it’s: Please stop being apathetic,” said Nadine Seiler of Waldorf, Maryland. “I just want people to get involved.”
Seiler, an American citizen originally from Trinidad, wore a shirt that read “Stop Project 2025,” a reference to the conservative playbook for a second Trump presidency.
Nearby, Jim Schwartzburg held up a tie-dye sign explicitly condemning the Republican Party. He traveled to Milwaukee from northern Wisconsin and said he was disappointed with the turnout for the protest.
“It’s clear the other side cares more,” he said. “And that’s the magic of Trump: He gets people who never got off their couches out.”
Other protesters expressed the Democratic Party’s long-held concern that everything that has happened in this chaotic presidential campaign only increases Trump’s re-election chances.
Ranay Blanford, who served in the Army for 20 years and wore a tank top that read “Veterans Against Trump,” worried that the shooting would energize Trump’s base, who would see him as “a hero, a martyr.”
At the same time, she said the attack was “terrible and deplorable.”
“We don’t do that in America,” she said. “We vote people out, we don’t shoot them.”
As the protesters moved through downtown Milwaukee, they encountered small groups of counter-protesters, mostly anti-abortion activists, holding signs comparing the procedure to domestic violence and murder.
At one point, a few counter-protesters shouted through a megaphone that the protesters were going to hell.
“There could be a bullet with your name on it today,” the man leading the talks shouted. “You may not be as blessed as Trump and dodge that bullet. It’s time to make it right with God!”
Another held a sign that read, “Homosexuality is a sin.”
As the march ended, a protester shouted back, “It’s fun, you should try it!”
Nevertheless, organizers largely succeeded in staging the promised “family-friendly” protest. The groups exchanged sharp words, but there were no visible clashes. Volunteer marshals helped disperse participants when necessary, while the police presence was minimal, aside from a few foot officers in light blue vests who identified them as members of a Columbus community policing team. A few more small gatherings are planned for the rest of the week.
The rally’s coordinators have promised a bigger turnout next month in Chicago, where the Democratic Party is holding its own nominating convention and protests will focus on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Participants from left and right said they were not afraid to show up on Monday, even after the assassination attempt plunged the country into a new state of unrest.
“This is the safest place in America right now, wherever Trump is,” said Dan Gilles, a Chicago student who was among the counter-protesters and wore a hat that read “Make America Straight Again.”
But even as the status quo — and the toxic political dialogue — seemed destined to prevail, some in the crowd sought harmony. One of them was Joshua Hanson, a 52-year-old from Asheville, N.C.
Hanson, a preacher, bears a striking resemblance to Jeff Bridges, the character from the movie “The Big Lebowski.” He walked around the protest area wearing a shirt with the image of the movie’s protagonist, a go-with-the-flow, good-for-nothing type.
Hanson, driving across the country on his way home from a Grateful Dead concert in Las Vegas, made a stop in Milwaukee to preach the gospel of unity.
“We need healing as a nation. We are so divided,” he said. “We are all lost. We are all suffering. … We just need to come together and see what we can agree on.”
America, he seemed to say, will endure.
Thebault reported from Los Angeles.