City of Albuquerque refers $211K Trump campaign bill to collection agency | TheHill
By: Morgan Gstalter (TheHill)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The city of Albuquerque has referred a $211,175.94 bill for former President TrumpDonald TrumpOn The Money: Manchin floats breaking up Biden's infrastructure proposal | New home sales jump more than 20 percent in MarchWhat obstruction to Biden's climate initiative will look likeHillicon Valley: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube execs to testify at Senate hearing on algorithms | Five big players to watch in Big Tech's antitrust fight MORE's reelection campaign rally in 2019 to a professional debt collection agency.
The outstanding invoice has remained unpaid since the event in nearby Rio Rancho. City officials covered the security costs of the then-president's stay at a downtown Albuquerque hotel, The Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday.
The six-figure tab includes the costs of blocking off City Hall and parts of downtown, as well as overtime pay for police officers.
The city previously said that it incurred $7,102 in costs for barricades during Trump's visit and $132,831 in paid time off for city employees. It also said assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department provided during Trump's campaign visit amounted to $71,242.
A spokeswoman for the city of Rio Rancho — where Trump actually hosted the rally — said that the campaign "made it clear that they would not reimburse the City for those ancillary costs that occurred outside of the event." The campaign has also not paid Rio Rancho the $239,475 associated with his visit.
Bernalillo County, which also invoiced Trump for the 2019 visit, told the newspaper that the county ultimately wrote off the $139,183.52 unpaid bill as a "bad debt."
"In my mind, he owes us a lot more because there was about a day and a half where we couldn't even function as a city," Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D) said during an appearance on "The Daily Show" this week.
Lorena Sanchez, a spokesperson for the city, told the Albuquerque Journal that officials have been attempting to collect payment for months, even mailing the bill to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this month.
Kellerdiscussed how all of the city's attempts to contact Trump and his campaign have reportedly been ignored.
"He [Trump] should be getting these annoying voicemails that, like, we get usually from scam companies where it's like 'You owe debts,' " Keller told Jordan Klepper, a correspondent for the Comedy Central TV show. "I think Mar-a-Lago is now getting those calls."
Adding to the ongoing list of Trump's debts…
Mayor Tim Keller explains why Trump still owes money to the city of Albuquerque. Watch @jordanklepper Fingers the Pulse - Into the MAGAverse special in full: https://t.co/ljguWU4vlUpic.twitter.com/dwkGWiwP55
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 22, 2021
It is a standard process for the city to send bills that are 61 to 90 days old to collections agencies. Sanchez told the newspaper that there are currently 2,517 city invoices in collections.
Michael Glassner, the then-chief operating officer of Trump's campaign, told The Hill in 2019 that "it is the U.S. Secret Service, not the campaign, which coordinates with local law enforcement."
"The campaign itself does not contract with local governments for police involvement. All billing inquiries should always go to the Secret Service," he said.
The Hill has reached out to Trump's office for comment.
Albuquerque is not the only city attempting to collect outstanding debts from the Trump campaign. City officials in El Paso, Texas, said in November that they are hiring legal counsel in their fight to obtain more than half a million dollars stemming from a February 2019 rally.
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Trump's MO has been to stiff people for years and it has never been a secret. Any city who allowed him to hold a rally there with his history deserves to get ripped off.
Yeah, but I'm sure there are quite a few taxpayers who didn't have much say in the decision who are now footing the bill. Not at all fair to them.
No it is not fair to them. They should go after the bonehead(s) who allowed Don The Con to hold the rally in the first place.
He stiffs everyone! I'm sure this is true for every city where he held one of his 'rallies'.
Just because he can't "stiff" a woman, he feels he has to stiff everyone, well, F U Trump, eerrrhhhhhh, maybe i need to rephrase that before he tries to hump my leg.
Same ol same ol. Stiffing the vendors.
Some things never change.
So he thinks that his campaign stops should be paid for by the taxpayers...
Looks that way.
Another GoFundMe opportunity ...
Maybe the My Pillow guy can pass the hat.
Same old crap from Trump. What a scumbag. How does he get away with this crap for all these decades?
Nobody holds him responsible. It just blows my mind.
Same. They just keep on worshipping, buying the lies, and excusing the grifting.
I have read where even people that were scammed with the recurring donations don't blame him.
He can do the most vile things to his own supporters and they don't care.
Never seen anything like it.
One can only hope yet he seems to get away with it time and again.
I can just imagine his diehard supporters going even more insane if he is ever convicted of anything.
They are already nuts and don't live in reality.
On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes. Suffering from paresis derived from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his confinement. I find it ironic that he died in Palm Beach FL.
We can only hope against hope.
How is it that he always manages to get away with this shit?
I swear it's the same thing affecting trumpturd - untreated syphilis.
It is called extreme multiple coatings of Teflon.
trump's trail of tears. NO surprise. What so ever !
Trump welching on a debt, say it ain't so.
My, my, my.... yet more people that have former President Trump living in their heads rent free 24x7.
However, [ (deleted) ] I'll provide a couple of snippet's from the article to whet your appetite:
It's quite an eye opener and in truth, show just how much politicians of ALL stripes, use and/or abuse the system.
Also from your link:
Back the Blue, until he has to pay them, amiright?
And you of course totally ignored this point. "It's quite an eye opener and in truth, show just how much politicians of ALL stripes, use and/or abuse the system."
I guess you missed the Obama, Biden and others to concentrate on Trump.
You're welcome to either seed or write an article, if it will help evict Obama from living rent-free in your own head.
We're talking about trumpturd, Not President Obama or President Biden. Is deflection all you have?
A tired platitude.
Is that all you have, deflection?
trumpturd isn't a politician. He's just a piece of shit. No surprise you worship him.
Still grifting.
Hey - somebody check his pockets for the $570,000.00 he owes El Paso, TX.
Oops, I just noticed that the article mentioned this, but what the hell. It deserves to be mentioned twice. El Paso isn't the kind of place where money grows on trees. It takes a special kind of asshole to steal money from a city like this.