Mayor of Vermont city says Donald Trump is not paying his bills
Burlington, Vt., is Sen. Bernie Sanders’ home turf, but that didn’t stop Donald Trump from holding a rally there back in January. Now the mayor of the city is saying Trump is stiffing the city for services it provided during that rally.
Mayor Miro Weinberger complained to local TV station WCAX on Wednesday that Donald Trump owed the city $8,500 for expenses from the January rally, and that the bill was 60 days past due with no response.
“Eighty-five-hundred bucks is not nothing for the city of Burlington,” Weinberger told WCAX. “We have not gotten responses to our outreach emails and phone calls.”
Trump delivered a speech at Burlington’s Flynn Theater in January. The theater has a seating capacity of 1,400 people, but Weinberger claims the Trump campaign invited 20,000 people to the rally. Combine that with the large protest response from the liberal city and the city needed lots of police officers to keep the peace.
The city’s bill to the Trump campaign consisted of $7,200 to pay for the staffing of 32 police officers, and $1,260 for four fire personnel and two rescue vehicles.
The city had previously billed Bernie Sanders for a campaign kick-off event last May: $858 for four police officers, two fire personnel, and one rescue vehicle. That bill was paid on time, which isn’t surprising considering Sanders used to have Weinberger’s job. Other Democrats were less prompt. The Democratic National Committee still owes the city $4,000 for two fundraisers held there by President Barack Obama and the First Lady.
Burlington wouldn’t be the first creditor ignored by Trump. A Reuters report from November found Trump sometimes refuses to pay bills from contractors who have done work for his real estate business, and later negotiates the price to a lower amount.
“I fight like hell to pay as little as possible,” Trump told Reuters.
Trump’s campaign has been quiet on the Burlington situation so far, with WCAX saying they did not respond to multiple requests for comment.