PA city demands Trump cough up thousands owed from 2018 rally before he returns again

The mayor of Erie, Pennsylvania is making an all-out effort to get Donald Trump to pay up tens of thousands of dollars he has refused to cough up for almost five years before the former president returns this weekend for another rally.

With Trump headed to Erie on Saturday as part of his campaign for the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination, Mayor Joe Schember (D) told the Erie Times-News that pleas for the $35,000 owed have gone unheeded and city administrators are looking at ways to get him to pay before he hits town in less than a week.

According to the report, the $35,000 is for expenses incurred when the city hosted an Oct. 10, 2018, Make America Great Again at Erie Insurance Arena, which went to pay city workers assigned to the event, as well as police officers who worked overtime.

"I think we have to try, and I feel like my team feels the same way,” Schember said. “We’re going to see whether we can get some payment from them in advance this time. It’s important to do this because we’re talking about taxpayer money being used to help make his visit more safe.”

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The Pennsylvania city is not alone in feeling ignored by Trump and his people over money owed after hosting rallies.

Raw Story reported in April on how officials in Waco, Texas forced the former president to pay up, with a similar situation the next month in Des Moines, Iowa and the battle authorities in Manchester, New Hampshire have been fighting to get payment for police overtime under the same circumstances.

As for Erie, the report notes, "After Trump’s October 2018 rally, the city made a formal request for a $35,129 reimbursement from Trump's campaign committee. However, the city received nothing from the Trump campaign, despite the committee, at that time, reporting more than $35.4 million on hand, according to Federal Election Commission filings."

Pointing to a recent FEC filing from Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. that shows $22.5 million on hand, Schember bluntly stated, "Trump has been able to bring in millions of dollars for his campaign. He should be able to easily pay these costs to cities.”

Kevin Flowers of Erie Times-News added, "Since 2016, when Trump was first elected, other cities across the country have incurred significant costs when hosting Trump rallies, most of them related to public safety and security, and while some cities have received repayments, dozens have not been reimbursed."

According to a report from the New York Times in June, the former president has been "quietly diverting" funds from his re-election campaign to help pay his mounting legal bills after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on tax fraud charges, and in a federal court in Florida by the Department of Justice over stolen government document

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