JANESVILLE, Wis. — Donald Trump’s supporters welcomed the GOP presidential front-runner to House Speaker [crscore]Paul Ryan[/crscore]’s hometown late Tuesday afternoon.
Janesville was the first stop Trump has made in Wisconsin and the New York developer has some catching up to do. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] secured the endorsement of Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday, one week before the state GOP primary.
Trump took umbrage at Walker for his endorsement of Cruz telling the crowd at the Holiday Inn conference center, “He certainly can’t endorse me after what I did to him in the race.”
“The guy came up to my office. He handed me a plaque, because I supported him,” Trump said. “What do I know? I supported him. I gave him fifty or a hundred thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money for a guy you’ve never met before. I think that’s pretty good.”
“But I liked the fact he was fighting, fighting. Personally, I’d like to see somebody make deal without going through all that mess, but he was fighting,” said Trump referencing Walker’s 2011 budget battle with the state’s teachers union.
“And I gave him a lot of money and he came up a year or so ago. He and gave me a plaque,” later mocking the gift, as a staffer of Trump’s found Walker’s plaque buried underneath other plaques given to the billionaire.
He later added, “You have a governor that has you convinced [the state] doesn’t have problems.”
While the endorsement was not unexpected, Cruz was already campaigning in the state before the Easter holiday, hitting similar campaign stops Walker found to be the key to his success in his own election.
Paul Ryan received a negative reception as well when Trump mentioned he spoke to the House Speaker recently. The crowd booed loudly.
Trump is expected to continue his own journey through Wisconsin throughout the week with campaign stops that include Green Bay as well as Appleton.