“You got to pay your bills,” Donald Trump has frequently advised when reviewing NATO Alliance contributions by European countries. That’s a point on which “the most honest person who has ever lived” ought to take his own advice.
In recent years, numerous media outlets and public interest groups (Center for Public Integrity, Business Insider, Politico, Newsweek, CTV News, Daily Beast, Wausau Pilot, South Carolina Daily Gazette, CNN, Wisconsin Watch, Fox 11 TV and WBAY TV in Green Bay) have documented that Trump owes huge sums of money to cities from Arizona to Vermont for expenses incurred in campaign appearances back to 2016. Note that these are not the Democratic National Committee.
Trump maintains that those expenses should be paid by the Secret Service (yes – you and I taxpayers). Of course, Trump has a long business history of cheating on taxes and of not paying contractors, suppliers, and employees (many of them undocumented immigrants – readily admitted by those persons). And despite those practices, he still managed his way to six business bankruptcies, making much of his fortune instead on financial arrangements for “The Apprentice” show.
In many cases, with Trump daring the wronged parties to sue for what they were owed, the victims concluded it would cost more than what they were owed to hire an attorney and undergo court proceedings. Is that how Trump became “a very successful businessman?”
As of March 1, 2023, the Daily Beast found that only one of 30 cities with outstanding expenses from campaign appearances by Trump (and a few others) had been paid. That was Minneapolis, which billed Trump for $530,000 (a multi-party agreement was negotiated to settle that).
The Center for Public Integrity (fact checked by the VERIFY organization as recently as
September 6, 2024) documents that Trump owes 14 of those cities a total of more than $1.82 million – merely pocket change for a self-proclaimed “very rich man.” On September 10, 2024, Newsweek reported that four of those cities asked Trump to pay more than $740,000 for appearances in 2016 and 2019.
They are El Paso, Texas ($470,417.05 for February 11, 2019 plus a late fee of $98,787.58), Spokane, Washington ($65,124.99 for May 7, 2016), Mesa, Arizona ($64,467.56), and Green Bay ($42,769.55 for 2016 and 2024). Trump paid La Crosse, Wisconsin $5,574 (10 cents short of the actual bill) for a 2020 appearance but he still owes $13,265.53.
Green Bay is also owed $12,500 from Hillary Clinton and $2,000 from Bernie Sanders for appearances in 2016. The Democratic Party paid Green Bay’s bill of $7,000 for an April 2024 appearance by Jill Biden.
Cities such as Burlington, Vermont and Wildwood, New Jersey have not disclosed how much they are owed. Although the city of Madison does not charge for extra security expenses for candidates, Sanders asked for and paid a bill.
Others still hoping to collect from Trump are Billings, Montana ($45,900), Albuquerque, New Mexico ($211,176), Erie, Pennsylvania ($40,329), Eau Claire, Wisconsin ($47,398), Tucson, Arizona ($81,837), Lebanon, Ohio ($16,191), and Dorchester, South Carolina ($26,000). Clinton still owes Eau Claire $7,000.
Somehow Trump decided it was worth paying $130,000 to buy silence on a sexual encounter. Does anyone wonder why that happened?