Donald Trump’s campaign still owes three-quarters of a million dollar to five municipalities that have hosted rallies for the former president.
News of Trump's $750,000 tab since 2016 comes from a new analysis from NBC News. The outlet looked into Trump's outstanding bills after Erie, Pennsylvania’s attempted to recoup $40,000 in law enforcement costs from 2018 and 2023 rallies. They found that multiple cities and counties across the U.S. are still fighting to recover cash spent to secure Trump rallies.
El Paso, Texas makes up the bulk of Trump's outstanding municipal debt. That border city is seeking $569,200 from Trump. El Paso says the figure is made up of a $470,000 fee from 2019 and a late payment penalty. In 2020, the city went as far as to hire a law firm to help in collecting the outstanding invoice.
In Spokane, Washington, city officials are nearing a decade of chasing down the Trump campaign to make good on costs they say were incurred during a 2016 rally. Trump owes over $65,000, per an invoice shared with NBC by city spokesperson Erin Hut.
It's not always obvious who foots the bill for campaign rallies. Several of the municipalities seeking restitution said they had no formal agreement about costs prior to the event. A Trump campaign spokesperson and a representative of the Secret Service both noted that coordination with local law enforcement is typically handled by that branch of the Treasury Department.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told NBC that their agency "lacks a mechanism to reimburse local governments for their support during protective events."
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