St. Cloud, Minnesota Claims Trump Campaign Owes $209,000

The city of St. Cloud, Minnesota, has sent a second invoice to the Trump campaign after it missed the October 10 deadline to pay approximately $209,000 for city services provided during a July rally, as reported by the Star Tribune. This adds St. Cloud to a growing list of cities awaiting payment from the Trump campaign for expenses incurred at various events.

The original invoice, dated September 10, breaks down the costs incurred by the city, including $63,000 for police services, $62,000 for a nearby construction project, $60,500 for public services, $21,000 for the fire department, and $2,000 for IT-related expenses.

According to St. Cloud City Administrator Matt Staehling, the city does not bill the White House for official visits but does bill political campaigns for the public services required at campaign events. Meanwhile, St. Cloud State University confirmed that the Trump campaign did pay the $35,000 rental fee for using its facility for the rally.

This situation echoes the experience of Minneapolis, which spent years attempting to collect $530,000 from the Trump campaign for police overtime and other expenses incurred during a 2019 rally at the Target Center. Minneapolis eventually received around $100,000 more than a year later.

Currently, at least four cities and one county across the U.S. are waiting for a total of $750,000 in unpaid bills from the Trump campaign, according to NBC News. Some of these unpaid expenses date back as far as eight years, from Trump’s first presidential run. One of the largest debts is owed to El Paso, Texas, where the Trump campaign has an outstanding balance of over $569,200 from a 2019 rally. This amount increased after late fees were applied to the initial $470,000 invoice.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, where Trump recently held his third rally, the city is still awaiting payment for costs from his previous two events in 2018 and 2023, which total over $40,000.

The Trump campaign has previously argued that the responsibility for covering these expenses lies with the Secret Service. However, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi stated that while the Secret Service typically requests local assistance for such events, the agency does not have a mechanism to reimburse local governments for their support during protective events.

When both the Trump and Biden campaigns were reported to have outstanding bills for campaign visits to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Biden campaign quickly settled its debts, according to the city’s mayor.