USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn't pay his bills (2018)
www.usatoday.com

... Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will "protect your job." But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades " and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.

At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.

Trump's companies have also been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. That includes 21 citations against the defunct Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and three against the also out-of-business Trump Mortgage LLC in Ne ...

When Trump comes to town, he brings excitement, leaves unpaid bills (August 2024)
dailymontanan.com

... "It's usually a pretty all-hands-on-deck situation," says Billings Police Department Public Information Officer Lt. Matt Lennick. "We work closely with the Secret Service and usually have to bring in extra staff, because at the same time we still have to monitor our calls for service and respond to calls within the city. It's pretty extensive for our department and costly because of the amount of overtime and things like that."

That cost can quickly add up, and for many municipalities it's often impossible to predict ahead of time what that cost will be. As Billings Police Chief St. John told the Billings Gazette in 2018 in preparation for Trump's rally in Billings, "We won't have any idea of the cost (of Trump's visit) until we get the final bill."

And it's something that can't be stuck in a budget plan.

"I've never seen the situation where we knew ahead of time in a budget year that we were going to have a visit because they (candidates) don't put out their schedules that far in advance. My understanding is we normally recoup whatever cost we can on the backside," Lennick said.

Attempting to recoup those costs is what the Billings Police Department, years later, is still trying to do.

The taxpayer burden

Trump's campaign has been notorious for flaking on bills for security. According to a 2019 report from the Center for Public Integrity, Trump owed more than $840,000 to various city governments, and likely more, as Trump's campaign does not acknowledge a single one of these city governments as debt in his federal campaign financial disclosures. ...