Former President Donald Trump is returning to rally in a small New Jersey city that his campaign stiffed on a five-figure police and public safety bill in 2020.
Consider that a lesson learned for Wildwood, N.J.: This time, Trump's campaign needed to pay ahead of time for the rally Trump is hosting on Saturday at Wildwood Beach.
RELATED ARTICLE: Stiffed: How Trump's campaign visits cost local police departments
The Trump campaign paid $54,200 for public safety and clean-up costs ahead of Saturday's rally that's expected to draw thousands of visitors, NJ.com reported.
Lisa Fagan, public information officer for the city of Wildwood, N.J., confirmed to Raw Story that the Trump campaign paid $54,200 plus an additional $150 that "covers all event costs that the city might incur."
"We are working in tandem with the Secret Service who are running all security measures," Fagan said.
All city departments work together to support such an event, Fagan said.
“Take the politics out of it and people would bend over backward for this number of people to come to their town,” Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr., a Republican and Trump supporter, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We become national spotlight. They see the size of the beaches, they see the amusement parks we have to offer, our restaurants and hotels take a good hit.”
Trump's campaign was invoiced $33,900 after a rally he hosted on Jan. 28, 2020, prompting then-Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron to plead with Trump to pay up as the city of 5,000 dealt with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center for Public Integrity reported.
Federal campaign finance records offer no indication that Trump's campaign ever paid the 2020 bill Wildwood sent, and Fagan confirmed that the City of Wildwood did not receive payment, which "has not affected the city," Fagan said.
“We’re a small, seasonal resort. It’s all a scary proposition,” Byron told the Center for Public Integrity back in 2020. “The president could help now.”
Wildwood was one of 14 municipal governments across the country that implored Trump to pay up a collective $1.82 million in debts for security at his Make America Great Again rallies, the Center for Public Integrity reported.
Raw Story found that eight of Trump’s campaign visits in 2023 cost local taxpayers at least $100,000 in total — expenses that the local municipalities covered as Trump's campaign refused to pay.
ALSO READ: How Trump could run for president from jail
“They have no choice but to put personnel there and protect these events or police these events,” Justin Insalaco, who worked for the West Windsor Police Department in New Jersey for 11 years, told Raw Story in December. “It shouldn't fall on the taxpayer of those towns.”
Trump is campaigning while he is in the midst of a criminal trial in New York involving the falsification of business records over an alleged hush money payment to adult film director and actress Stormy Daniels. Trump faces three other criminal cases involving retention of classified documents, election interference and his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
In all, Trump faces 88 felony counts.
Trump was also found liable in civil trials for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll, and he was ordered to pay more than $450 million in damages for fraudulently inflating property values for tax breaks and more favorable loans for the Trump Organization.
Spokespeople for Trump's campaign did not respond to Raw Story's request for comment.
