Trump Campaign Forced to Pay North Carolina City $82k in Advance for Rally

[sheshe2]

Bottom line here, he picked the smaller of the two venues because he is broke and he KNOWS HE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO FILL THE LARGER ARENA.

Trump is set to take the stage at Asheville's Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on Wednesday after paying $82,247.60 to the city for a "last-minute" rally, according to Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR). The campaign, struggling to effectively blunt the momentum of Vice President Kamala Harris, reportedly first contacted the city about the rally on August 8.

City of Asheville spokesperson Kim Miller told BPR that $22,500 of the amount paid is a two-day rental fee for the auditorium, while "the remainder of the funds go to cover additional costs such as house support, production staff, production equipment rental, and exterior items like queue stanchions and port-a-loos."

While the campaign paid in advance due to Asheville's policy for short-notice bookings, Trump has a long history of failing to pay cities for billed rally fees, leaving the White House in January 2021 with at least $850,000 in unpaid rally debt. Most of the bills are still unpaid, including more than $500,000 owed to the city of El Paso, Texas.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Tuesday.

The Trump campaign booked the smaller of two venues at the same complex in downtown Asheville for Wednesday's rally. The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium has a capacity of just 2,431 people, while a larger arena next door that is not hosting Trump has a capacity of 7,200.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-campaign-forced-pay-north-carolina-city-82k-advance-rally-1938769?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1723585741