Like many wealthy people and big corporations, former President Donald Trump has a problem paying the people who work for him. The Daily Beast reports that in 30 counties the outlet contacted, only one city’s local first responders had been paid for their time working at a Trump rally.
Trump owed more than $11,000 to Sioux City, Iowa, city and fire departments, as well as rented parking spaces from a November 2022 rally, according to The Daily Beast. It was only after immense pressure from city officials and reporting by the Sioux City Journal that the debt was eventually repaid.
We show no outstanding bills for this Event Strategies group,” City Manager Bob Padmore said. “The ambulance has been paid and now, the police security has been paid, as well.”
An anonymous source from Warren, Michigan, told The Daily Beast that its city has never seen a penny paid for the time cops worked a MAGA rally on Oct. 1, 2022. And local police from Lorain County, Ohio, said they were never reimbursed for a June 2021 rally in their city.
In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, an unnamed official told The Daily Beast that although the city clerk’s office recorded a repayment from Trump, the official said they weren’t sure if the money actually even came from Trump or his staff.
“I don’t write the name, I only wrote the check number,” the person reportedly said.
In fact, according to reporting by CTV News, the tab for Trump MAGA rallies across the nation exceeded $2 million. This from a man who, as of September 2022, according to Forbes, is worth $3.2 billion. His real estate in New York City alone totals about $880 million, and his golf clubs and resorts are valued at $740 million.
Going back to long before he was in politics, the magnate had a record of stiffing employees.
In 2016, USA Today reported about a Philadelphia cabinet maker named Edward Friel Jr., who was left by Trump holding an $83,600 bill—a debt that eventually killed Friel’s family business.
“At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work,” USA Today’s Steve Reilly wrote in 2016.
Trump has continued to paint himself as a man of the people. In reality, he’s a wealthy douchebag who treats the people who work for him like they should be paying him for the pleasure. Somehow, despite that, the twice-impeached architect of the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol remains beloved by millions and a strong contender for a second term in the White House.