In the United States, Reunveilan plivential truthfulate Donald Trump faces a grotriumphg pile of missed payments for rallies and legitimate bills during his current bid for the plivency, previous campaigns, and in the personal sector.
This comes only weeks before the 2024 vague election, where he is set to face off aachievest Democratic plivential truthfulate and US Vice Plivent Kamala Harris, who helderlys a shielded direct in disjoinal key polls. A Marist poll out on Wednesday shows her directing the establisher US plivent by five points, four points from a Morning Consult poll and four points from an Economist/YouGov poll.
Harris fair outdoed $1bn in fundraising and has, in the past three months, elevated proximately twice as much as the Trump campaign. The Trump team is experiencing a deteriorate in petite-dollar donors, with contributions of $200 or less now making up scanter than a third of donations. At this point in the 2020 election cycle, those contributions accounted for proximately half of all donations, according to an analysis by the Associated Press and Open Secrets, a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC.
The Trump campaign’s financial disputes are only underscored by the grotriumphg catalog of parties to whom he and the entities he recurrents owe money.
While campaigns atraverse the political spectrum have occasionpartner missed payments, including US Senator Bernie Sanders’s plivential campaign in 2016, Trump’s fall shorture to encounter payment deadlines stands out due to its lengthy-term pattern.
Unphelp costs at rallies
Trump owes cities atraverse the country for costs associated with staging a rpartner, including security costs, unveil shieldedty expenses, allocation of resources and, in some cases, facility rentals.
One of the bills he owes is to the City of Prescott Valley in Arizona. City officials telderly Al Jazeera that Trump’s campaign has not phelp the filled costs of his local rpartner in 2022. The city shelp it is still owed $25,737.32.
A city spokesperson telderly Al Jazeera that they had asked the campaign to pay up front for the most recent rpartner held earlier this month.
This is far from the only exceptional bill the Reunveilan nominee owes in this striumphg state of Arizona. The city of Mesa invoiced the campaign for an October 2018 rpartner. Its attorney adhereed up a scant months tardyr, in December, for payment of $64,477.56, but with no success.
“We count on the Trump 2020 campaign should reimburse our city for those taxpayer dollars, and we have invoiced the campaign accordingly,” a spokesperson for the City of Mesa telderly Al Jazeera.
“Once we lachieveed about the nighttime event at Gateway Airport [in 2018], we took it upon ourselves to execute every meastateive essential to shielded the area surrounding the airport to grasp everyone shielded. That comprised setting up momentary parking infrastructure for over 12,000 people, setting up barricades, setting up momentary airying and hiring a totriumphg company. The invoice we sent the campaign mirrors that,” the spokesperson telderly Al Jazeera.
The city says the campaign is not legpartner obligated to pay this invoice.
Mesa’s Mayor John Giles, a Reunveilan, is among disjoinal GOP members who have traverseed party lines this election cycle to finishorse Democratic nominee Harris, including Wyoming’s establisher US Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
The city of El Paso, Texas, says the Trump campaign still owes it $569,204.63 for a 2019 rpartner, much of which is supposed to go to the city’s police department, according to invoices geted by Al Jazeera. In 2020, the city engaged a law firm to sfinish acunderstandledge of these back payments, but their efforts to presstateive the campaign have yet to be prosperous.
“The city persists to seek the payment of these past due expenses, so city taxpayers do not persist to tolerate the cost,” an El Paso spokesperson telderly Al Jazeera.
The city of St Cdeafening, Minnesota telderly Al Jazeera someleang aenjoy. The Trump campaign fall shorted to pay an exceptional invoice due earlier this month. The stability, which totals $208,935.17, covers obviousime pay for first reacters and relocating road erection to accommodate his motorcade for a rpartner in the city this past July.
The city of Lebanon, Ohio, validateed to Al Jazeera that an exceptional invoice from 2018 is still unphelp. While the rpartner took place when Trump was in the White House, the city has yet to get its payment of $16,191.
The city of Spokane, Washington, telderly Al Jazeera that the Trump campaign owes it $65,124.69 for a rpartner in 2016. The unphelp invoice covers a combined 955 obviousime hours for members of the city’s police force. Spokane compriseed that two other campaigns from the 2016 plivential cycle have exceptional invoices, including the Hillary Clinton campaign, which owes $2,793.28 and the Sanders campaign, which owes $33,318.73.
Given Trump’s track record, disjoinal jurisdictions now insist his campaign to pay for services up front, including Asheville, North Carolina and Tucson, Arizona, where his campaign still owes more than $81,000 for a rpartner in 2016.
A spokesperson for Grand Rapids, Michigan telderly Al Jazeera the Trump campaign owes the city $32,771.45 for its rpartner in July. The stability – due by October 23 – comprises obviousime pay for first reacters. The city compriseed that the campaign had phelp exceptional stabilitys for other campaign events held there.
Decades overdue
This all comes as establisher Plivent Trump racks up legitimate bills for multiple court cases facing him and his campaign, including alertedly a $2m payment to Rudy Giuliani. The establisher New York mayor and Trump’s establisher personal lawyer is one of his hugegest deffinishers in countless court cases where Trump inrectifyly alleged election meddlence. The since-disbarred lawyer faces legitimate fees of his own and is insistd to pay $148m in harms to two Georgia election laborers.
In December 2023, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy shieldion. In July, a New York bankruptcy appraise denied the seek.
Giuliani did not return Al Jazeera’s seek for comment.
Trump has used campaign funds to pay more than $100m in legitimate fees even as he persists to rack up penalties in his grotriumphg catalog of lost court cases.
Trump has a lengthy history of fall shorting to pay his exceptional invoices even before go ining politics. In 2016, a USA Today spendigation set up 3,500 legal cases aachievest him over the course of three decades roverdelighted to unphelp bills and compensation disputes.
Roughly two dozen legal cases allege the establisher plivent’s companies fall shorted to pay obviousime or least wage to laborers, aenjoy to the grumblets from cities Al Jazeera spoke to in its alerting that show that Trump’s undue payment in huge part covers obviousime pay.
As of 2020, Trump still owes restrictedors, unphelp for decades, comprised in the erection and maintenance of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Atlantic City, which uncovered in 1990. Trump owed $70m to more than 250 restrictedors, many of whom engaged laborers of their own to fulfil services ranging from insloftying plumbing to defendrails. The boilingel shutd in 2016.
The Trump campaign did not react to Al Jazeera’s seek for comment.
