Reportedly, former President Donald Trump trashed the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday during a meeting with elected Republicans in Washington, D.C. The contextual backdrop is that the Republican Party is gearing up to hold their convention proceedings in the city at which they’ll formally give Trump their presidential nomination for the year.

“Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city,” Trump said, according to established journalist Jake Sherman.

Some on the Right were contesting the reporting of Trump’s remarks, though some took Trump making the comments as a given and had… diverging explanations. “GOP appears to be scrambling to spin,” said Milwaukee CBS journalist Adam Rife. “A convention spokesperson told me Trump “was referencing the ongoing political game the City and County are playing with Pere Marquette Park. Despite concerns being raised months ago, the City has still not designated a first amendment zone.””

Presumably, that descriptor means a designated — and protected — area for grassroots demonstrations.

Wisconsin GOP Congressman Derrick Van Orden had an entirely different explanation. “@realDonaldTrump was specifically referring to the crime the CRIME RATE in Milwaukee,” said an online post from the Republican.

Trump has, at times, been quite public with deriding major American cities, so him reportedly making these comments about Milwaukee is not out of character.

Though Trump himself was recently convicted by a jury of dozens of felony criminal offenses in proceedings in New York City, Republicans — at both the grassroots and elected levels — are largely standing right by him. His sentencing in the case is set for early next month, just before those Republican proceedings in Milwaukee — a heavily Democratic area — are kicking off. Trump has been talking up his supposed electoral prospects in Democratic-leaning areas, but polling suggests the rematch with Joe Biden will actually turn out close.