Members of the town council of Memphis, Tennessee, object to the town paying for police to escort Donald Trump to a close-by rally later this month as a result of the previous president doesn’t pay his payments.
“He’s notorious for not paying,” Democratic City Councilmember Martavius Jones famous final week to NBC affiliate Action News 5 in Memphis.
“When you talk about these rallies, there are huge expenses that various jurisdictions have to pay, and these expenditures are not being reimbursed by the Trump campaign or Trump organization,” he added.
The Center for Public Integrity reported in 2020 that Trump owed almost $2 million at the moment to 14 completely different police businesses and native governments for the companies they supplied at his rallies.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, officers had been so annoyed final yr with a long-overdue $211,000 debt owed by the Trump marketing campaign that they despatched the invoice directly to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
El Paso, Texas, officers advised KXAN-TV simply final month that they’re nonetheless awaiting a $570,000 payment for the price of a Trump reelection rally in 2019.
The Trump rally on June 18 can be held in South Haven, Mississippi, which is a few 20-minute drive from the Memphis airport.
Jones and fellow Councilmember JB Smiley, who’s working for Tennessee governor, plan to introduce a decision Tuesday to the total council asking the Memphis Police Department to not present any manpower or different assets for Trump’s look.
“As we know, the Memphis Police Department is already experiencing a shortage of officers to patrol our communities. I do not believe that it is a prudent use of police manpower and Memphians’ taxpayer dollars to escort the former president to an event in Mississippi,” Smiley stated in a press release.
“He’s no longer the president. He has a Secret Service detail, I think that’s sufficient,” Smiley advised Action News.
Larry Ward, a spokesperson for Trump’s rally organizer, The American Freedom Tour, stated the councilmen’s proposal is “mean-spirited, partisan, preposterous and penurious.”
A Memphis Police Department spokesperson advised Action News 5 that if the police are “asked to assist any federal partner regarding the safety of a group or individual, we will assist.”
