Mark Alesia, Investigative Reporter

MILWAUKEE — The self-styled “secretary of retribution” for Donald Trump who’s circulating a 350-person “target list” of politicians, bureaucrats and journalists had nothing to say about his plans when approached by Raw Story reporters Wednesday at the Republican National Convention.

Raw Story attempted to ask Ivan Raiklin about his stated desire to conduct “live-streamed swatting raids” against individuals on his “target list.” Also of interest: his efforts to work with largely rural, conservative county sheriffs to deputize some 75,000 military veterans to arrest people on his list.

RELATED ARTICLE: Trump’s ‘secretary of retribution’ has a ‘target list’ of 350 people he wants arrested...

MILWAUKEE — Just outside the security perimeter of the Republican National Convention, across the river from where thousands gathered in support of Donald Trump for president, a gaggle of clowns held court.

They were older clowns, honking horns and proudly displaying their homemade clown cart, featuring circus music and a papier-mâché Trump head adorned with a red tie.

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MILWAUKEE — About a mile north of where Republicans will nominate Donald Trump for president, in a neighborhood where most residents are Black, a storefront with big windows and brightly colored signs stood as a curiosity to people waiting at a bus stop just outside along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

“WISGOP,” the sign says. “Republican Party of Wisconsin Community Center.”

“That’s strange, ain’t it?” said Isaac Dickey of Milwaukee, who was walking in the area. “That (stuff) makes no sense. This is a Black neighborhood.”...

MILWAUKEE — In the hour after former President Donald Trump was apparently struck in the ear with a projectile at a rally in Pennsylvania, people preparing for the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin met the news with a mixture of shock, bewilderment and vigilance.

Michelle Altherr, a Republican National Convention delegate from Arizona, stood outside Fiserv Forum and raged: “When you think about it, you’re like, no, this just ramped up to another level. If you thought we were MAGA and extreme before, we went to another level now. When you see on the video Trump is mouthing 'fight, fight' — oh, no, he didn’t have to say it. We’re at another level.”

“Get ready, it’s going to be like 'The Purge' tonight,” a late 20-to-early-30-year-old server said as the former journalism student exited the bar and raised a loosely clenched fist....

MILWAUKEE — When visitors land at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, they are deluged by huge billboards for the Heritage Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based conservative group behind the highly contentious Project 2025 "presidential transition" plan.

But the political debate over presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and his policies immediately spill out on the roads and highways into the downtown Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention.

Massive pro- and anti-Trump digital signs were everywhere, sponsored by a motley crew of political actors, from the Republican National Committee and a political action committee backed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to ones sponsored by a conservative Florida personal injury attorney and a liberal food spice company....