The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has had quite enough of Donald Trump’s refusal to pay for a rally he held in Rio Rancho back in 2019, so they’ve turned and his campaign over to a collection agency in an attempt to recoup $200,000 in unpaid security costs the former president has steadfastly refused to reimburse them for.

KOB4 reports that Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the city had no other recourse:

“We actually treated it like any other debt, and so it goes through a somewhat process where you send a bunch of letters out. We got no response from those letters. And then automatically, it does go to an agency that helps try and collect debts, and so that’s those annoying phone calls you get that say, you know, you owe money to so-and-so like now, Trump is getting those.”

The $200,000 the city had to lay out was for blocking off parts of the downtown area, paying police for overtime, and paid time off for city employees who had to stay home as a result of the campaign rally being held.

Does Keller believe the city will ever get a check from the former president or his campaign? No, but he noted that the debt is being handled the way any other would be dealt with:

“Given what else has happened, I mean in terms of, even his own campaign owing money to donors and lots of shady stuff there, so unfortunately I don’t really expect us to get paid. But it’s important that we do, and you know, we would do it for anyone else, so he’s no different.”

Albuquerque isn’t the only city the Trump campaign owes large sums of money to, according to Newsweek, which noted in November of last year that all total, Trump owes at least $850,000 to various locations where he held campaign rallies:

“The Texas city of El Paso said this week that they will be hiring outside legal counsel as part of their fight to obtain more than $500,000 from Trump’s team to cover the security and other costs from a rally held there in February 2019.

The outstanding debt includes $470,000 in additional services provided by the local police and fire departments, as well as an additional $99,000 in late fees.”

When asked if they intended to pay the bills for security and other expenses, the Trump campaign responded with an email that stated it was “reviewing” the matter.

In other words, none of these cities should hold their collective breath.

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