So many chickens are coming home to roost on the White House that the Trumps could go into the rotten egg business. Even the Trumps’ sordid history as intractable deadbeats may be finally about to bite them.
For example, the Guardian reported recently that the Trumps owe Scottish courts a bill of tens of thousands of pounds that they have, so far, refused to pay. The bill came from Trump’s 2014 suit to stop a windfarm from being built near his Aberdeenshire golf course. Trump lost the suit in 2015, and per Scottish law he is on the hook to pay for all court expenses. But the Trump organization will not accept the bill because they are disputing the amount.
So the bill is now in the hands of a court-appointed adjudicator. I assume Scotland could eventually seize the property if the Trumps continue to refuse to pay. This may be doing the Trumps a favor, since the Scottish golf resorts lose millions of dollars a year. Recently Scotland also shot down a pitch from Eric Trump to build luxury housing around the Turnberry resort.
The Scotsman reports that local officials like the rolling agricultural fields along the Firth of Clyde coastline more than they like pleasing the son of the United States president. Eric Trump had pitched local authorities on a plan to transform farmland surrounding the resort into villas and golf homes. The development play was an effort to juice revenues at Trump Turnberry, which has lost roughly $40 million since Trump acquired it in 2014.
Turnberry is, of course, the place made infamous when it was revealed the U.S. military was using the resort and its nearby airport for refueling stops — money pouring into Trump pockets, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Very likely they’ve made enough on pit stops to pay the Scottish court bill.
But Trump has a long-standing aversion to paying bills even when he clearly owes them.
A USA Today analysis published Thursday uncovered 60 lawsuits by ordinary Americans who say Trump and his businesses failed to pay them for their work.
The list includes plumbers and painters, waiters and bartenders, real estate brokers and even law firms who helped him defend such suits.
The documents reviewed by the newspaper include:
- More than 200 liens since the 1980s that were filed by contractors and workers who said they were stiffed.
- Records released by casino regulators in 1990 that show 253 subcontractors on a single project were not paid in full or on time.
- Twenty-four Fair Labor Act violations by the Trump Plaza casino and Trump Mortgage for failure to pay minimum wage or overtime. The cases were resolved with an agreement to pay back wages.
The deadbeatery now extends to the Trump campaign, which refuses to reimburse cities for security at Trump rallies.
In city after city, across the nation, Trump has failed to pay local officials who provide thousands of dollars’ worth of security assistance to the president’s campaign during his Make America Great Again rallies.
In total, at least 10 cities have complained that the campaign has not reimbursed them for services provided by local police and fire departments, totaling more than $840,000, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity in June.
Some of these bills go back to 2016, note. The fiscal damage to some local municipalities has been significant.
Trump has scheduled one of his MAGA rallies for tomorrow in Minneapolis. Trump narrowly lost Minnesota in 2016, and according to many accounts he believes he can win the state in 2020. But Mayor Jacob Frey, clearly nobody’s fool, demanded the city be paid $530,000 for security and other costs associated with the rally in advance.
And, of course, the Trump campaign refused and instead went to war with the mayor of Minneapolis.
It’s not as if the Trump campaign can’t pay $530,000. At least, it ought to be able to. Trump and the RNC raised $125 million in third quarter fundraising, which is a presidential fundraising record. Altogether, the various parts of Trump’s campaign efforts have raised more than $308 million in total in 2019, and boast more than $156 million cash on hand. A mere $530,000 shouldn’t break the bank. Yet Trump is going to war against the mayor of Minneapolis, unleashing one of his trademark twitter rage tantrumps and threatening to sue the city for extortion. To which the mayor responded:
Yawn… Welcome to Minneapolis where we pay our bills, we govern with integrity, and we love all of our neighbors. https://t.co/v1cXvoD9uR
— Jacob Frey (@Jacob_Frey) October 8, 2019
One suspects this is a public relations mistake on Trump’s part. Minnesota may be a mostly rural state, but most of the population lives in cities, and winning the state’s electoral votes means winning the cities. And now most news outlets in Minnesota are explaining to citizens that Trump doesn’t pay his bills.
Even better, the white terrorist group Oath Keepers is planning on sending heavily armed thugs to the rally to “protect” it. The city is going to need that security.
As of this writing Trump is, apparently, getting away with the use of the city’s Target Center without paying in advance, which pretty much means he will never pay at all. Although the city owns the Target Center, the contract to host the rally is with the management company, AEG Worldwide, and AEG is honoring the contract. It is possible the city eventually will bill AEG for whatever it will cost to keep Minneapolis safe.
Some businesses in the neighborhood of the Target Center, notably a couple of popular night spots, are honoring the event by pledging to donate their profits for the evening to Planned Parenthood.
Trump’s sycophants are blasting Mayor Frey and badmouthing Minneapolis as fast as they can move their lips, or thumbs, as it were. But again, if the whole point of this rally is winning votes for Trump, wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense to just pay the bleeping $530,000? How is pissing off Minneapolis going to help him win the state? Aaron Ruper writes at Vox that while Minnesota isn’t completely beyond Trump’s reach, most indicators suggest he’s much less popular there than in 2016, and his brand of nasty campaigning really doesn’t work that well in the state.
See also Trump’s 2016 campaign was run on a shoestring. His reelection machine is huge — and armed with consultants. While Trump probably will never pay Minneapolis, he is paying an army of consultants very handsomely. I assume they insist on being paid up front.
I miss NYC's Village Voice.
Back in the 80's and early 90's, they were the one publication in NYC who saw through tRUMP.
Even the NY Times fell for his "charity" work, and other 'tRUMP as celebrity billionaire' stories. The NY Daily News, Post, and Long Island's Newsday ALL covered ALL of his bullshit – especially the Post with its British tabloid-like "Page Six" gossip column.
I hated tRUMP from the moment I first heard of him. Which, of course, was from a Village Voice. It was when he was trying to get older artistic folks out of a rent-controlled building. He couldn't build his first tRUMP "Skyscraping Ode to My Tiny Dick" Tower until all of old actors, dancers, writer, etc…, left the rent-controlled building. tRUMP brought in pimps, hookers, junkies, drug dealers, and other scum of the Earth, to scare the old folks into leaving.
Sadly, that worked.
So I've hated tRUMP from the early 80's, and I'll hate him until he's long dead!
Fuck that fucking motherfucker!!!!!! (Sorry about the foul language, maha).
I'm really hoping that, from now on, when asshats from the Republican Libertarian wing say the US should be run like a business by a business leader, they will have to hire more body guards. At the very least.
Trump is certain to repeat the shitshow of back-to-back rallies for the 2020 campaign. In 2016, the security issues were less – the threat of violent confrontation less. Nobody knew Deadbeat Don would skip on the local expenses the show ran up. This time out, nobody has any excuse. I hope other cities will demand a deposit up front. If Trump won't pay, the local cities should refuse to clear the streets for the Trump motorcade.
The administration has no authority to require state and city streets be closed/restricted for King Donald. It's a courtesy every POTUS is entitled to for political events but the candidate should pay for from campaign money for campaign events.
Given Trump's record, they have every reason to demand a deposit up front and grant a refund in their own sweet time.
Those poor, poor Kurdish fighters.
They trusted America.
And tRUMP just abandoned them.
Parents dying, children taking shrapnel, etc…
For what?
tRUMP's towers in Istanbul?
The FSM weeps…
What's life if you can't stiff someone along the way?
The country and capitalism works only when the citizens deal honestly. Not because of the justice system but sometimes in spite of it. When the fix is in, criminals thrive. Criminals then can use the justice system to their advantage as they are the ones that know how it works and thus, how to work it. Trump's history is a textbook case of exploiting the corruptness in justice systems. The saga continues.
Welcome to the Third World. Now you know what it is like to live in a country with a corrupt dictator. The protesters in Hong Kong look to the United States to help them against the huge power of China. Has anyone told them our national soul is presently out of order.
He continues as untouchable, and the Trumpinistas cheer him on. He is one of us they shout. That he is. He is the type of person to avoid doing business with.
Be still my heart!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lev-parnas-igor-fruman-giuliani-trump_n_5d9f32f1e4b02c9da045a4c2
The article says that the Southern District of New York busted two Ukrainians who have been working with for Mayor Bug-Eyes. If it pans out, they are stone-cold busted for donating to Trump's campaign. But Wait! It must be recently based on the report – they raised 20K for Pete Sessions (R-TX) and met with him to request the removal of the previous ambassador to Ukraine. She wasn't playing ball with Mayor Bug-Eyes who was acting as Trump's personal State Department. Sessions DID write a letter "causing the US government to remove or recall the then-US Ambassador to Ukraine." That's from the Sovereign District of New York as they are called because they operate more independently than any other federal district. (AG Barr may not have been in the loop at all.)
So SDNY has two of the three stooges in custody. They were working at Rudy's direction. They will fold under pressure unless Trump pardons them – like tomorrow. So you will (or may) have evidence the Rudy was supervising the manufacture of 'evidence' to incriminate the Bidens. And there will (may) be testimony to the reasons why the ambassador was a problem. And she will be deposed as a witness – I'm not sure the State Department can block that.
Is all the stuff that Trump is withholding from the House going to come out in the next month in a criminal case. Will AG Barr tamper with that case with the risk of prison sure to come with the paper trail the DOJ will require that Barr leave.
Be still my heart!
And there will (may) be testimony to the reasons why the ambassador was a problem.
You mean the bad news ambassador? The one who is going to be going through some things?
Yep. She's the one. I'd rather see her testify then go to the Super Bowl.
More info: Curly and Moe were arrested at Dulles on Wednesday. Barr was told on …. drum roll… Wednesday. Event B probably happened 5 minutes after Event A. I'm betting that Barr wasn't given the chance to delay the arrest long enough for these two to get back to Ukraine. Rudy (aka Larry) is not commenting.
I have to believe that we need to know what was said in the Erdogan phone call. After learning trump tried to help a gold bar money launderer from turkey that mayor bug eyes represented ( see tillerson), I have to believe trump is on the take from Turkey and has been. I keep asking : who pays Rudy? Trump?
Also trump campaign owes El Paso 569,000 for rally costs.
They say trump is calling McConnell 3 times daily. You know the only reason this continues is Republicanstill fear. But they could not be afraid
He only has the power they give him.
Of course, Trump rallies aren't about winning votes; they're about making Trump feel better about himself.
Also, I'm sure Putin doesn't work for free.
Lannisters always pay their debts;
Trumps never pay their debts;
Therefore Trumps are not Lannisters.
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