Yes, Trump’s campaign has unpaid bills in multiple U.S. cities

In mid-August, former President Trump’s plane was diverted from Bozeman, Montana, to Billings. VERIFY debunked claims that the plane was diverted because he owed the Bozeman airport and city money.

While that claim turned out to be false, other social media posts shared around the same time claimed the Trump campaign does owe money to more than a dozen other cities. 

Those posts shared an MSNBC map graphic that lists the cities and the alleged amounts of money the Trump campaign owes them. The cities where Trump purportedly owes money include Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, among others.

Multiple VERIFY readers also asked us if it’s true that Trump’s campaign has unpaid bills in multiple U.S. cities. 

THE QUESTION

Does Donald Trump’s campaign have unpaid bills in multiple U.S. cities? 

THE SOURCES

• Ava Montoya, public information officer for the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Laura Cruz-Acosta, strategic communications director for the City of El Paso, Texas
• Rob Lee, director of communications for the City of Erie, Pennsylvania
• Ana Pereira, communications director for the City of Mesa, Arizona
• Scott Brunka, city manager for the City of Lebanon, Ohio
• Erin Hut, communications director for the City of Spokane, Washington
• Victoria Hill, public informations officer for the City of Billings, Montana 
• City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, spokesperson
• Jess Olstad, a spokesperson for the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Daniel Gleick, press secretary for Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser

THE ANSWER

Yes, Donald Trump’s campaign has unpaid bills in multiple U.S. cities. 

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WHAT WE FOUND

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has unpaid bills in at least six cities for costs associated with his rallies and campaign events over the years, VERIFY confirmed. 

Those cities are: Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Erie, Pennsylvania; Mesa, Arizona; Lebanon, Ohio; and Spokane, Washington.

It’s unclear, however, whether he’s legally obligated to pay all of them. The Center for Public Integrity, which reported on the Trump campaign’s unpaid bills in 2019, said that in many cases, there are no signed contracts between the municipal governments and the Trump campaign. That means the cities may not have legal recourse to recoup those funds.

Here’s what we know about Trump’s unpaid bills in these six cities. 

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Trump’s campaign has an unpaid bill totaling $211,175.94 in the City of Albuquerque, Ava Montoya, public information officer for the city, confirmed to VERIFY. 

These expenses were “incurred during his stay in Albuquerque after a rally in Rio Rancho in 2019,” Montoya said.

VERIFY asked for a breakdown of these expenses but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

El Paso, Texas

Trump’s campaign has an unpaid bill totaling $569,204.63 in the City of El Paso after he held a rally there in 2019, the city’s strategic communications director Laura Cruz-Acosta confirmed. 

The city is still seeking payment for the campaign’s past-due expenses. On Nov. 23, 2020, the El Paso City Council unanimously took action to hire lawyers to help the city collect the debt, Cruz-Acosta said.

A copy of the invoice sent to Trump’s campaign that Cruz-Acosta provided to VERIFY includes a full breakdown of costs. It shows Trump owes more than $470,000 to the City of El Paso itself and over $98,000 in late fees. 

The invoice includes charges for services provided by El Paso’s police department, the streets and maintenance department, public transportation provider Sun Metro, the health department, the fire department and the aviation department related to the 2019 rally.

Erie, Pennsylvania 

Trump’s campaign has an unpaid bill totaling $40,329.27 in the City of Erie for public safety costs associated with campaign visits in 2018 and 2023, the city’s communications director Rob Lee confirmed.

This money was for overtime pay for police, fire and public works personnel required because of the campaign visits, Lee said. 

Mesa, Arizona 

Trump’s campaign has an unpaid bill totaling about $64,467.56 in the City of Mesa for a rally he held at the Mesa-Gateway Airport in October 2016, communications director Ana Pereira confirmed. 

The costs stem from the Mesa Police Department renting equipment for a temporary parking area for 12,000 people, which included barricades, security and towing, according to an invoice Pereira provided to VERIFY. 

The City of Mesa said in a statement that it believes the Trump campaign “should reimburse our city for those taxpayer dollars,” but added that the campaign “is not legally obligated to cover the costs for the rally.” 

Lebanon, Ohio

Trump’s campaign has an unpaid invoice totaling $16,191 in the City of Lebanon, City Manager Scott Brunka confirmed. The former president held a rally in Lebanon in October 2018. 

“The invoice represents the City’s staffing costs to provide traffic control and safety details for the event,” Brunka said. 

Spokane, Washington 

Trump’s campaign has an unpaid bill totaling $65,124.69 in the City of Spokane, communications director Erin Hut confirmed. 

“All of the costs were directly related to overtime pay for security purposes supplied by the Spokane Police Department,” Hut said. 

Trump’s campaign isn’t the only presidential campaign with unpaid bills in Spokane. Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns also have unpaid bills after their respective visits to the city in 2016, according to Hut. 

The Sanders campaign has an unpaid bill totaling $33,318.73 while the Clinton campaign has an unpaid bill worth $2,793.28, she said. 

Other cities listed on the viral MSNBC map

The viral MSNBC map also shows Trump’s campaign has unpaid bills of $42,811 to Billings, Montana; $8,464 to Burlington, Vermont; $47,398 to Eau Claire, Wisconsin; $9,380 to Green Bay, Wisconsin; $530,000 to Minneapolis; $81,837 to Tucson, Arizona; and $9 million to Washington, D.C. 

The cities of Green Bay, Eau Claire and Burlington did not respond to VERIFY’s requests for comment about the Trump campaign’s unpaid bills. 

The City of Billings’ public information officer Victoria Hill said she could not find any record of invoices from the city for presidential visits. 

Trump’s 2018 visit to Billings did cost the Billings Police Department more than $45,000, according to Hill. After calculating the expenses, the city considered following up but “recognized there is no legal obligation set by the Federal Election Commission for campaigns to reimburse municipalities for additional public safety measures,” she said. 

As for Minneapolis, the city’s Mayor Jacob Frey and former President Donald Trump had a public disagreement in 2019 after the city tried to recover $530,000 in security costs from Trump’s campaign for a rally and the campaign threatened to sue, VERIFY partner station KARE 11 reported.

Frey said in 2021 that the city identified $200,000 worth of “municipal costs” that it was eligible to be reimbursed for, according to KARE 11.

The Target Center, where Trump’s 2019 rally in Minneapolis was held, agreed to pay $100,000 in a settlement with the city, KARE 11 reported. 

When VERIFY asked Jess Olstad, a spokesperson for the City of Minneapolis, about the Trump campaign’s unpaid bills in the city, they wrote, “All $100,000 has been paid. The last was paid on 12/28/23.”

Tucson, Arizona, did incur about $81,000 in unreimbursed costs associated with providing public safety at a Trump campaign event in March 2016, as well as about $44,000 from a Sanders campaign event that same month, Andy Squire, a public information officer with the Tucson City Manager’s Office, said. Those rallies were held at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC). 

At the time, the city did demand payment from each of the campaigns, which both refused to pay, according to Squire. 

“Fundamentally, each response pointed out that the agreements did not expressly provide that the user of the facility (the campaign) was responsible for the costs of public safety response that might occur. The City Attorney evaluated those responses, and determined that pursuing recovery through legal actions would consume more taxpayer-funded resources than any likely recovery,” Squire said. 

“Based on our (and other cities’) experience in that election cycle, the Mayor and Council directed staff to require different agreement terms and conditions for similar events going forward. As a result, the agreements for these types of events at the TCC now require the user to pay all costs of public safety response, and they must deposit the estimated amount of those expenses in advance of the event,” Squire added.

In Washington, D.C., the mayor’s press secretary Daniel Gleick said he is not aware of the Trump campaign having any outstanding bills.

The $9 million number on the viral map comes from costs associated with non-campaign events such as Trump’s 2017 presidential inauguration and the Salute to America Fourth of July Festivities that took place while he was president, VERIFY partner station WUSA reported. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote a letter to Trump in July 2019 urging the federal government to reimburse the city for the resources and support it provided for those events.