Pennsylvania town wants Trump to pay in advance of rally after his campaign stiffed them in 2018
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- Trump's previous presidential campaigns still haven't repaid several of the cities he held rallies in.
- The mayor of Erie, Pennsylvania, wants the Trump campaign to pay the city for service before his rally on Saturday.
- Trump's campaign has more than enough cash on hand — $22.5 million — to remedy the request.
The mayor of a Pennsylvania city is pushing for former President Donald Trump's campaign to pay up before he and his campaign descend on it Saturday for a planned rally.
According to a recent report from the Erie Times-News, Erie Mayor Joe Schember wants to be reimbursed for any fees related to the upcoming rally ahead of time, after Trump's campaign failed to repay the city more than $35,000 following a campaign event in 2018.
As the Erie Times-News reported in 2018, Schember and his administration pushed Trump's team to reimburse $35,129 to the city for overtime pay for city workers who assisted with the event. According to Paul Lichtenwalter, Erie's financial director, the city didn't have any leverage in 2018 to force the campaign to repay the debt.
Nearly five years later, Schember appears to have learned his lesson.
"We're going to see whether we can get some payment from them in advance this time," he told the Erie Times-News. "It's important to do this because we're talking about taxpayer money being used to help make his visit more safe."
Trump's 2024 campaign is currently sitting on a stack of cash — $22.5 million — though it's unclear if the campaign has any intention of following through with Schember and the city's requests.
Erie isn't the only city Trump's campaigns have failed to reimburse. According to a report from the Center for Public Integrity in 2019, Trump still owes the City of El Paso over $470,000, more than $80,000 in Tucson, and more than $60,000 in Spokane, Washington, among other cities.