Former President Donald Trump is notorious for not paying his bills. This is becoming an issue for the former president, now with city council members in Memphis, Tennessee calling for the city to decline to provide him with a police escort, citing a long history of not paying his bills to local communities.
Trump is set to visit the city again for a speaking engagement in July. But members of the Memphis city council are calling on the municipal government to decline any request to provide him with a police escort, citing a long history of stiffing local governments after using local police resources.
Trump has stiffed not only Memphis but cities and communities across the nation. Trump’s campaign ran up a whopping tab of nearly $2 million in unpaid bills for police services and other services provided by local governments during his 2020 run.
“He’s notorious for not paying,” Council member Martavius Jones said.
Jones said that the request to refuse a police escort has nothing to do with politics but is in the best interest of the city.
“When you talk about these rallies, there are huge expenses that various jurisdictions have to pay, and these expenditures are not being reimbursed by the Trump campaign or Trump organization.”
In El Paso, Texas, officials say that Trump’s campaign still owes $575,000 for costs associated with one of his campaign rallies from three years ago.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, his campaign refused to pay a $211,000 bill incurred when city employees had to be given paid time off to vacate workstations during a Trump rally. It also required spending on police overtime and security barriers. The city even sent a bill directly to his Florida home.
City council members in Memphis do not want their city to have hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from them. A resolution is expected to be introduced to ask the Memphis Police Department not to provide any resources for his visit.
There is already a shortage of officers in Memphis, another council member, JB Smiley said. “I do not believe that it is a prudent use of police manpower and Memphians’ taxpayer dollars to escort the former president to an event in Mississippi.”
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