Since March 27, 2019, the City of El Paso has been trying to collect $569,204.63 from Donald Trump. The city has sent several reminders about the past due amounts owed to the city’s taxpayers. According to the city’s February 2 statement, Trump owes El Paso’s taxpayers $569,204.63.
On April 20, 2020, then Mayor Dee Margo, a Republican, told The Texas Tribune that his “instructions to [city staff] were if we need to, file suit” to collect that money owed by Trump to El Paso’s taxpayers.
The original invoice for Trump’s security was $470,417.05. As of February 2, he now owes El Paso’s taxpayers $569,204.63.
Trump held a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on February 11, 2019. As president, Trump has visited El Paso twice, once for the 2019 rally in February and a second time after the Walmart mass shooting.
On August 3, 2019, Patrick Crusius walked into an El Paso Walmart and killed 23 and injured 22 people. It is America’s 6th worst mass shooter crime today.
Four days after Crusius’ mass murders, on August 7, 2019, Donald Trump held an event in El Paso to offer the community support for Crusius’ murders. Trump attempted to visit with the eight victims being treated after the shooting but all refused to meet with him.
Officially, Crusius murdered 23 people because “he selected El Paso, a border city, as his target to dissuade Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants from coming to the United States.” This is the official record because Crusius was offered plea agreements in federal and state court that ended with him serving a life sentence without allowing the full court record to be made public. Four district attorneys said that they would seek the death penalty and, in the end, James Montoya allowed Crusius to plead guilty to the murders in state court in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. The plea agreements did not allow Crusius’ manifesto stating that Trump influenced him to commit the murders to become part of the official record.
Nonetheless, Crusius murder spree was at least partially influenced by Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
At the time of Trump’s second visit, the one after the Crusius shooting spree, Margo said that he would welcome Trump to El Paso in his “official capacity” as mayor.
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On May 23, 2019, the city’s Office of the Comptroller sent a past due letter to the Trump campaign. In it, city officials wrote that “failure to pay your past due balance or make acceptable payment arrangements within 30 days from the date of this notice may result in your account charged a one-time collection fee of 21 percent.” The demand letter added that there are no statue of limitations to collect the past due amount, adding that the debt “will remain on the City’s books indefinitely.” The letter adds that the city cannot enter into future contracts with someone that owes more than $100 to the city’s taxpayers.
The default rate of $98,787.58, was added to Trump’s account on August 17, 2019.
The city, via the Office of the City Attorney, sent two additional letters to the Trump campaign on November 6, 2019. The first was sent to the Trump campaign. The second was sent to Brad Parscale. Parscale was the digital media director for the Trump campaign in 2016 and the campaign manager for the 2020 campaign.
Both letters stated that the delinquency fee of 21% had been added to the account and urged Trump campaign officials promptly address the amount due.
On November 23, 2020, the El Paso City Council voted to retain the Law Office of Snapper Carr to collect what Trump owes El Paso’s taxpayers., After emerging from executive session, then-city representatives, Alexsandra Annello, Cassandra Hernandez, Cissy Lizarraga, Sam Morgan, Henry Rivera, Claudia Rodriguez, Isabel Salcido and Peter Svarzbein voted in favor of hiring the attorney to collect the outstanding balance from Trump.
On December 3, 2020, the city contracted Carr Snapper to seek payment from Trump. The law firm accepted the contract to collect from Trump on a contingency basis. For the first $200,000 collected by the attorneys, the city would pay them 10% of the amount collected. An amount collected by them between $200,000 and $400,000 would earn the attorneys a fee of 15% over $200,000. Anything over $400,000 would result in a 30% fee for any amount collected over $400,000. The city’s letter states that the lawyers would seek payment from Trump until the payment is received, or the city terminates the lawyers.
On February 2, we submitted an open records request to the city asking for the amount due, and any communications regarding the outstanding balance. Although the contract with the attorneys states that the lawyers will keep the city informed about their attempts to collect any funds from Trump, the results of our open records suggest that there has been no further attempt by the city or its attorneys to collect the outstanding balance since the December 3, 2020, engagement letter.
The last statement issued by the city on the date of our request, shows that Trump owes El Paso’s taxpayers $569,204.63.
It’s Not Just El Paso Trump Owes
At least ten cities have reported that Trump owed them money for events in their communities.
The latest city to report that Trump has failed to pay his bill is Erie Pennsylvania in September 2024. The 2024 event was the third time Erie had hosted Trump. He left without paying his bill. El Paso’s balance is the largest amount owed from all the communities that reported that Trump failed to pay them. The second largest amount so far reported is $444,986 that Albuquerque says Trump owes them from an event he held there on October 17, 2019.
But one city, Tucson forced Trump to pre-pay $145,222 for an event in September 2024 to cover the city’s costs. Trump had not paid $81,837 from a previous 2016 event and Tucson city officials decided not to pursue collections efforts citing that the legal fees would be more than the balance due.
A 2019 Center for Public Integrity report reporting on bills that Trump has refused to pay to city leaders reported that some city officials have decided not to bill Trump for providing security at his rallies. Trump, for his part, has said that he has not requested security and that it is the Secret Service that requests it, alluding that it is the responsibility of the Secret Service to pay the bills. Spokesperson for the Secret Service, Jeffrey Adams, told Public Integrity that the service does not “have a mechanism” to make the payments, suggesting that Congress has not taken steps to fund security for presidential candidates.
Trump is not the only presidential candidate or office holder not to pay his bills. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stood out for paying his security bills in 2016. But, although Hillary Clinton paid most of her bills, she left at least one bill to Philadelphia unpaid. Barack Obama left an unpaid $55,480 bill to Springfield, Illinois for an event he held there in 2008 when he shut down his campaign.
At first Bernie Sanders refused to pay 23 city governments the $449,000 they billed his campaign during his 2016 campaign, according to Public Integrity. Before he launched his 2020 run for office, his campaign began “quietly” negotiating with the cities to settle the campaign debts to them.
El Paso City Council will be revisiting the outstanding Trump balance next week. In a telephone conversation today, City Representative Lily Limón told us that she will be adding this issue for discussion on the city council agenda for next week’s meeting.
Thank you, El Paso News Inc., for bringing this piece to the forefront. For years, I have been trying to bring closure to this way of doing business, especially from our president.
Even though we will never see a penny of this debt, I think it is important to remind voters of the character of the candidate who is then elected.
This weekend, I attended Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s rally, and as we waited in line, I had the opportunity to talk to a senior, like myself, about how peaceful El Paso is. We both agreed that the ugly racist violence comes from outside the city. As you stated in the article, Patrick Cruzsius came looking to kill Mexicans. We here in El Paso get along with each other, no matter race, religion, culture, or political ideology.
As we head to the polls to change the political climate in Texas, let us be reminded of the hatred that the article and my comments are talking about. Your vote will make a difference