Trump returns to Wisconsin with false claims that he won the state in 2020

GREEN BAY, Wis.— Donald Trump returned to Wisconsin Tuesday night for the first time in nearly two years, re-introducing himself to the battleground state with misleading claims about the 2020 election.

“You know we won this state. We won this state by a lot. It came out that we won this,” Trump told the crowd at a rally here.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016; he did not win the state in 2020. Turnout was higher in 2020 than it was four years early, so Trump did get more votes than he did in 2016 — but it was over 20,000 votes short of what Biden received.

On Monday, Trump also spread the falsehood during an interview with Milwaukee-based conservative talk radio host Dan O’Donnell.

“We actually did much better than the first time,” he said. “We won it in Wisconsin, as you know, the first time. 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.’”

O’Donnell did not offer pushback on the claim.

Trump’s campaign declined to offer additional comment.

A number of Republican Party officials and other candidates have expressed a desire to move on from claims the 2020 election was stolen, even as Trump continues to push the conspiracy theories.

Wisconsin played a central role in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Two attorneys who worked for Trump orchestrated a plan that originated in Wisconsin for fake electors to falsify paperwork saying Trump won the state, according to a lawsuit settlement reached more than three years after the 2020 election. That strategy was replicated in other key battleground states.

Despite Trump continuing to re-litigate the past election, top allies have tried to