Summary
Albuquerque officials say Trump now owes the city $444,986 over five years.
Trump’s campaign has left numerous cities with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills for public safety costs incurred during his rallies. Some cities have hired law firms to collect the debts, while others have required campaigns to pay estimated costs in advance. Despite Trump’s support for law enforcement, his campaign has consistently failed to reimburse local governments for the expenses they incur.
They have been doing this since 2015. Why is anyone still doing business with them?
It’s a way for Republican politicians to donate public money to Trump. They let Trump party for free and then get tax payers to foot the bill.
Naked corruption from republicans? Noooooo…
I’m beginning to think this is intentional by some of these towns.
They absolutely know they won’t get paid, but it’s a “legal” way to divert public funds to him…
raises an interesting question - would taxpayers be able to sue or compel the city to sue the Trump campaign to make them whole? If we allow a precedent that bills can go unpaid indefinitely then the trump campaign essentially siphons funds from unwitting taxpayers and maintains an otherwise defunct campaign.
Oh wait, that’s just how the wealthy live.
Seems reasonable - a corrupt public official could do their bit for him by only making a token effort to collect.
Why do these people even allow donnie dumbphuck to come to their town? He’s notorious for this kind of thing.
You can’t really block a legitimate political party without some serious repercussions
I used to do work at a high security site. One day the fire department was there for inspection. Out of curiosity I asked the chief what happens if he needs access and he is declined it for whatever reason. He pointed at the truck and said “This truck along with it’s contents are the key to the city. Nobody can stop me”. That day I learned that nobody can stop the fire department.
Yeah, but if they have a history of not paying, it seems they should be treated like any other outfit that act like deadbeats.
Well that’s why they started demanding payment up front.
hundreds of thousands in unpaid bills
Uhh… yeah. That’s basically Trumps thing. Talking up someone (or some group), contract them do some work, then shaft them when the bills come due.
i mean, you don’t become a billionaire by spending your own money. that’s little people stuff
… again.
Tons of cities got screwed in 2016 and in 2020, why did they think the guy who is well known for not paying his bills and actually brags about it to his throngs of adoring fans would suddenly pay up? Unless the cities planned to host him knowing that he would never pay, at which point it becomes the taxpayers problem. Should absolutely be grounds for a class action lawsuit.
I would argue this is just campaign contributions by the cities. And the regulations should be changed in the cities to require cash up front.
At this point, it’s really the fault of the cities involved for not insisting he pay up front. He’s fucking NOTORIOUS for doing this, and has been since 2015 at least, and it was a well-known and established behavior pattern in the 2020 campaign.
He was doing this way before 2015. Look at the long list of people and businesses he has screwed over since the 80s by not paying his bills.
When he came to my city a few months ago the city made his campaign pay in advance.
It’s called pattern recognition and clearly it’s an alien concept to Trump cultists.
Are you really telling me that multi-billionaire Donald Trump, openly backed by the richest man in the world, doesn’t pay his bills?!
Oh wait, he does it all the fucking time. Maybe it’s time to use a credit check agency, guys. You know, like you do every time a poor person wants something.
Grifters gonna grift. Scammers gonna scam. Albuquerque is just paying the idiot tax.
Unpaid bills are plausibly part of the reason why his mic tends to fail at his rallies a lot.
He regularly boasts he won’t be paying the contractors after any tiny issue (but is happy to continue using the equipment until the end of the rally).
There is no incentive for any decent contractor to provide services for him, especially when he’s threatening to sue everyone onstage
At this point of time, everyone should be demanding money upfront and a waiver of liability
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He doesn’t owe any of them that keep letting him come back without paying his bill. Tabs are for bars, not cities. If they want the money, they need to be willing to make him look like a cheapskate and cancel the event. The local authorities must be supporters of his to let it keep happening. Which means they’ll never make him pay the bill for any of this.
As a municipal official - that’s not how things work in reality.
Unless you’re willing to start shooting people, there comes a point where we can’t do anything. Residents have to worry about being evicted due to leins from the city, but political parties don’t because there’s nothing to seize within our jurisdictional control. All we can do is sue and get in line behind 50,000 other people who will never get paid.
Except no. Maybe in high school sophomore reasoning, but the financial world doesn’t operate the way you’re describing. It’s totally normal for business people to owe each other money, and accruing new bills doesn’t cancel old bills. As with all non-cash transactions, these cities knew they were risking not getting paid in case he goes bankrupt, but he still owes them and they have every right to collect, even if they let him come back.
