Texas Newspaper Calls Out Trump For Stiffing El Paso For Old Rally Expenses

Former President Donald Trump, whose fundraising operations are awash in cash, continues to stiff the Texas city of El Paso on a $570,000 bill for a campaign rally almost four years ago, The Houston Chronicle reported.

The “billionaire,” whose political war chest “boasts well over $100 million,” has ignored the $569,204 his campaign owes El Paso, including a 21% very late fee, the Chronicle noted on Saturday.

Trump racked up the bill for taxpayer services used at his “Make America Great Again” rally in February 2019, at the El Paso County Coliseum. Local authorities provided police, transportation, emergency and traffic services. The bill was due in April, two months after the rally.

The Trump campaign racked up debts in nine other cities for rallies by mid-2019. Albuquerque sent a $211,000 long-overdue rally bill directly to Mar-a-Lago last year.

As for El Paso, the campaign still owes the police department alone more than $381,000. A Trump campaign spokesperson told ABC last year, two years after the rally: “We are reviewing” the bill.

The city hired a collection firm to go after Trump in 2020, but so far hasn’t recovered anything, the Chronicle reported Saturday.

“It shows a lack of concern for the community and the taxpaying voters of El Paso,” city council Rep. Alexsandra Annello told the El Paso Times last year.

Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee for governor in next month’s election, had a rival rally the same day in 2019 that Trump turned up in El Paso. O’Rourke, who was then running for president, settled his bill with the city three months later.

Trump didn’t respond to requests for comment from the Chronicle, and has ignored El Paso officials for years.

He returned to Texas for a rally Saturday at the publicly owned Nueces County fairgrounds, south of San Antonio. It was unclear whether the county secured an up-front payment.