Summary
Albuquerque officials say Trump now owes the city $444,986 over five years.
Trump’s campaign has left numerous cities with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills for public safety costs incurred during his rallies. Some cities have hired law firms to collect the debts, while others have required campaigns to pay estimated costs in advance. Despite Trump’s support for law enforcement, his campaign has consistently failed to reimburse local governments for the expenses they incur.
He doesn’t owe any of them that keep letting him come back without paying his bill. Tabs are for bars, not cities. If they want the money, they need to be willing to make him look like a cheapskate and cancel the event. The local authorities must be supporters of his to let it keep happening. Which means they’ll never make him pay the bill for any of this.
Except no. Maybe in high school sophomore reasoning, but the financial world doesn’t operate the way you’re describing. It’s totally normal for business people to owe each other money, and accruing new bills doesn’t cancel old bills. As with all non-cash transactions, these cities knew they were risking not getting paid in case he goes bankrupt, but he still owes them and they have every right to collect, even if they let him come back.
As a municipal official - that’s not how things work in reality.
Unless you’re willing to start shooting people, there comes a point where we can’t do anything. Residents have to worry about being evicted due to leins from the city, but political parties don’t because there’s nothing to seize within our jurisdictional control. All we can do is sue and get in line behind 50,000 other people who will never get paid.