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Ahead of Tuesday visit, Trump pushes false claim that he won 2020 election

Trump will kick off Wisconsin campaign in Green Bay on Tuesday

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Donald Trump announces he's running for president in 2024.
Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for president for the third time as he smiles while speaking at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 15, 2022. A lawyer for Trump said Thursday, March 30, 2023, that he has been told that the former president has been indicted in New York on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

One day before his campaign stop in Green Bay, former President Donald Trump continued to push the false claim that he won Wisconsin four years ago — despite a recount, audits and court cases showing he lost to President Joe Biden.

During an interview with conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell on WISN-AM Monday, Trump said Wisconsin is one of the key states to winning the presidential election.

“We’ve had great luck there, and we’ve had some delayed luck,” Trump said.

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Trump won Wisconsin in 2016, defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by about 23,000 votes. Turnout was up for both parties in 2020, when he lost Wisconsin to Biden by about 21,000 votes.

“We had a great election. The second time, we actually did much better than the first time we won in Wisconsin,” Trump said. “The second time, we did much better. But I guess it was delayed. They found out a lot of wrongdoing and after the wrongdoing was found, people said, well, he actually did win.”

Biden’s victory has withstood multiple audits and reviews, as well as lawsuits and recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties. 

Lines of tables can be seen as a worker in gloves and a face mask flips through ballots
Workers at long tables receive ballots to examine Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, during the Dane County recount at Monona Terrace in Madison. Angela Major/WPR

Trump is scheduled to appear in Green Bay around 5 p.m. Tuesday. 

He has already won enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination for president, making his visit to Wisconsin during the state’s primary Election Day largely symbolic.

The visit will serve as a kickoff of the former president’s general election campaign in Wisconsin, a state that is thought to be a must-win for the nation’s next president.

Trump told O’Donnell there are now “five, six or maybe seven” swing states in play.

“I think a lot of places are at play that people aren’t even thinking about, but Wisconsin’s very important to me,” Trump said.  

Trump last visited the state in 2022, when he campaigned for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels in Waukesha.

Michels defeated former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in the GOP primary, but he went on to lose to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels shakes hands with former President Donald Trump at a Waukesha campaign rally on Aug. 5, 2022. Trump endorsed Michels in the Republican primary for governor.
Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels shakes hands with former President Donald Trump at a Waukesha campaign rally on Aug. 5, 2022. Trump endorsed Michels in the Republican primary for governor. Shawn Johnson/WPR

Brianna Johnson, Wisconsin communications director for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign, said Trump has ignored Wisconsin for nearly two years and now is “spreading the same lies that inspired a mob to assault police officers and try to violently overturn an election he knows he lost.”

“Trump is reminding voters he has nothing to offer but resentment, revenge, and retribution–and no vision or plan to make life easier for Wisconsin families,” Johnson said in a statement. 

Biden has made multiple stops in Wisconsin this year, and several since becoming president.

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