Iowa town still trying to get paid $11,000 for Trump rally

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — After a fair amount of haggling, Sioux City officials were able to get the people planning a rally featuring former President Donald Trump to pay a $5,000 bill the day before last month's event, but the city is still waiting on the U.S. Secret Service and event planners to reimburse more than $11,000 in other rally costs.

The Sioux City Journal reports that 136 pages of emails it obtained from the city show that officials went back and forth with representatives of Event Strategies Inc. for days before that company paid the $5,000 rental fee it agreed to for the use of several city parking lots for the Nov. 3 airport rally.

Two top Iowa Republicans who were both up for re-election, Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, both appeared at the event. Trump hinted to the huddled crowd that he would soon make an announcement that he would run for president.

“In order to make our country successful and safe and glorious,” Trump said, “I will very, very, very probably do it again.”

The biggest outstanding bill related to the rally is the $10,002.38 charge for police officers to staff the event that the Secret Service agreed to pay. City Finance Director Teresa Fitch said the city hadn't been reimbursed for that as of Tuesday.

The other lingering bill is a $1,425 charge that Event Strategies is supposed to pay for having emergency medical services on standby at the rally.

A story published in June 2019 by the Center for Public Integrity cited 10 city governments that were waiting for Trump’s campaign to pay public safety-related invoices, some of which were three years old.

Investigative reporting published by USA Today Network in June 2016 found that hundreds of people, including contractors, attorneys and food service workers, have accused Trump and his businesses of stiffing them for their work.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa town still trying to get paid $11,000 for Trump rally