Trump Loves Cops So Much Until It Is Time To Pay Them

Trump campaign sitting on $240 million. Oh well!

They just keep coming up with new ways to be horrible, don't they? Today's edition of MY GOD THESE PEOPLE ARE FILTH comes from the Center For Public Integrity , which added up some of the unpaid bills the Trump campaign stuck local police forces with after QAnon MAGA rallies. Turns out, it's a shitload of money!

In fact, CPI reports that 14 cities and counties are sitting on a combined total of $1.82 million of "public safety-related debt" after the Trump train rolled into town and then rolled right back out without paying its bills. That number would undoubtedly be much higher if Trump hadn't been forced to ground his campaign due to concerns about coronavirus.

In October of 2019, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis tried to get the Trump campaign to pay the $530,000 security cost upfront for a rally at the city's Target Center, prompting the president to lose his shit on Twitter.

Someone please tell the Radical Left Mayor of Minneapolis that he can’t price out Free Speech. Probably illegal! I… https: //t.co/KAncmV8QwQ

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1570545068.0 

"It's my responsibility to look after the taxpayers of the city of Minneapolis," Frey told CPI at the time. "We know from past experience throughout the country that Donald Trump doesn't pay his bills. He mentioned it was 'extortion' the other day. It's not extortion to ask somebody to pay their bill even when they don't really want to pay their bills."

Battle Creek, Michigan, got stuck with a $93,000 tab in December, and Wildwood, New Jersey, is still waiting on a $33,900 invoice from January. But if Tucson, Arizona, and Spokane, Washington, are any guide, they'll be waiting a long time. Those cities are still waiting for $82,000 and $65,000 respectively from Trump's 2016 campaign.

Which would be a goddamn nightmare if the economy were still booming. But we're in the middle of a pandemic, and cities are bleeding money trying to keep people alive.

"During this crisis, that loss is even more pronounced," Mayor Frey told CPI. "One hundred fifty thousand dollars, for instance, could pay for emergency rental assistance for 100 Minneapolis families."

"Without this money, we cannot help our most vulnerable, and I guarantee we do not have enough money to prevent lives lost and homes lost," Spokane City Council member Kate Burke said.

Reached for comment, the Trump campaign, which is sitting on $240 million in cash, bizarrely directed CPI to the Secret Service.

"It is the U.S. Secret Service, not the campaign, which coordinates with local law enforcement," Trump 2020 said in a statement. "The campaign itself does not contract with local governments for police involvement. All billing inquiries should go to the Secret Service."

You will be FOR SHOCKED to discover that this is complete bullshit. Federal tax dollars are notintended to defray security costs for political campaigns, and you can be damn sure the Republicans would have burned the White House down if the Obama campaign had said anything of the kind in 2012. Federal tax dollars exist to subsidize the president's weekly golf outings, to the tune of $133 million and counting. EL OH EL.

Apparently, it's the taxpayers in individual states who get the honor of footing the bill to keep the MAGA loons from murdering reporters or each other at Trump's Hitler Youth rallies. Because Donald Trump loveslovesloves law enforcement officers. Just, you know, not enough to make sure their pay checks don't bounce.

[ CPI ]

Follow Liz Dye on Twitter RIGHT HERE! 

Please click here to support your Wonkette. And if you're ordering your quarantine goods on Amazon, this is the link to do it.