What ever happened to Trump's Rochester campaign bill? (2024)

Dear Answer Man: I see that Donald Trump brought his roadshow back to Minnesota with a rally in St. Cloud. That made me wonder if his campaign has ever settled with the Mayo Civic Center on the outstanding amount he owed Rochester from when he visited our fair city in 2018. Or does he still owe us money? — "Overdue" Bill.

Dear Bill,

I'm going to take away your can opener if you keep handing us these cans of worms.

Since you're talking about the Mayo Civic Center, you're obviously referring to the Oct. 4, 2018, Make America Great Again event Trump and the Minnesota GOP held to support Republican candidates for office during that year's midterm election.

For the record, the Trump campaign paid the Civic Center in full, about $112,000 for the space.

Of course, some folks in the city — particularly then-City Council member Michael Wojcik — groused that Trump should pay for all the staff time, especially law enforcement hours and overtime needed to accommodate a presidential visit. Well, in 2019, Jenna Bowman, spokeswoman for the city, said that bill was never sent to the Trump campaign.

It's hard to complain that Trump didn't pay a bill that he never received.

Of course, he never received the bill because the city was and is well aware that Trump wouldn't pay it anyway. Why? Well, for starters, Trump has the law behind him. The Federal Election Commission does not require federal candidates to reimburse cities for extra costs such as law enforcement that can be associated with political rallies. And candidates on both sides often skip town without paying for whatever police protection those cities may deem necessary.

Then there was his kerfuffle with the city of Minneapolis about a year later over a campaign event scheduled for the Target Center. The city of Minneapolis asked Trump to prepay $530,000 for public safety costs before they'd allow him use of the venue. Trump and his campaign took to then-Twitter (now X) and sniped at the city, which sniped back. Needless to say, that wasn't pretty. The campaign also threatened a lawsuit.

Eventually, the rally went on as planned without the Trump campaign paying that upfront money.

During the Minneapolis brouhaha, the city argued that a Trump event is unlike other events because you can pretty much guarantee a large number of supporters and a plethora of protesters, and that's a recipe for policing.

Officially, the city of Rochester does not have an outstanding bill for 2018. Not for any candidate.

But 2020 is another story. Someone, or multiple someones, owe the city $71,347 for expenses incurred and billed to campaigns. Is that all Trump? After all, he held an event at the Rochester International Airport on Oct. 30, 2020, just four days before Election Day. Did he gas up Air Force One? Is there a cost for parking on the tarmac while rallying the Republican faithful? Did the police protection at the event cost tens of thousands of dollars?

The city while noting the unpaid 2020 total, did not say which campaign ran up that bill, or even if it was just one campaign.

While Joe Biden did not campaign in Rochester in 2020 nor did his running mate, then-Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden's wife, Jill Biden, held an event in Essex Park about three weeks before Election Day. With COVID and distancing being a concern, only about 100 supporters showed up, so the city probably didn't incur huge costs.

Also, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, did an event in Rochester in 2020. That event, which drew about twice as many people as the Jill Biden event, probably didn't break the city's bank either.

Oh, and if you think Trump is the only one not paying all these public safety bills — whether billed or just complained about — think again. A 2019 report by the Center for Public Integrity, while listing Trump's unpaid bills at length, noted that, for example, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had nearly a half-million dollars in unpaid bills from his 2016 run for the presidency. And even President Barack Obama occasionally neglected to pick up the tab handed to him by cities.

As for any unpaid bills in St. Cloud for Trump's rally on July 27, 2024, those bills have yet to be reported to the Federal Election Commission — the reporting period hasn't come yet — so we'll have to wait to see if the city of St. Cloud has its hand out or not.

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