Albuquerque Demands Trump Campaign Reimburse City $211,000 For Campaign Rally Security

The city of Albuquerque has demanded President Donald Trump’s campaign, Donald Trump For President, Inc., pay their unpaid bills by November 16 for hosting a campaign rally for the president in the city in October.

On October 17, the city sent an invoice of $211,175 to Trump’s campaign organization.

Albuquerque is the latest addition to the group of cities in the U.S., which have hosted Trump’s campaign rallies, but not been reimbursed for its costs.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the town’s “resources for law enforcement are critical and limited. The President’s campaign stop in the Albuquerque area cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars, including over 1500 hours of police overtime that was required by the campaign. We are asking the Trump campaign to pay our taxpayers back for the costs from his campaign stop.”

The city released a break down of the total costs incurred for the campaign rally: $7,102 for putting up barricades for the campaign rally, $132,831 in paid time off for city employees who could not work during the campaign rally and $71,242 for policing the campaign rally.

Michael Glassner, chief operating officer of Donald Trump For President., told The Hill that Trump’s campaign organization was not responsible for paying the cost for the campaign rally held in Albuquerque in October. The Trump campaign organization did not coordinate with law enforcement in Albuquerque and is not obliged to foot the bill for the campaign rally, according to Glassner. The onus is on the U.S. Secret Service to reimburse Albuquerque for the expenses incurred by the city, according to Glassner.

Article by Rajeet Guha