With only a day left for the US presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump has once again come under the scanner for not paying bills after conducting his mega political rallies. When Trump returned to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the first time in five years to conduct a rally last week, Democrat Mayor Tim Keller demanded that the Republican leader clear his previous dues. Keller took to his official social media handle and took a jab at Trump while posting an image of a skeleton working on a laptop, implying it had been several years of waiting for the Republican leader to clear his longstanding dues.
"Still waiting for Trump to pay the half million he owes. Maybe he's making a special Halloween delivery to the Duke City? We won't hold our breath," Keller posted on X (formerly Twitter), which invited cheeky responses from the netizens.
According to the city of Albuquerque, Trump left an unpaid bill of $211,176 in public safety costs in 2019 when he conducted a rally at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, which is a part of the Albuquerque metropolitan area.
The amount had since swelled to $444,986 including interest over the years. The mayor's office stated that police officers, first responders and other city employees who assisted with the rally, worked a combined overtime of 1,500 hours that night for the rally, which had not been compensated so far.
Last month, a report in NBC claimed that Mr Trump owed at least five cities, including those in the swing state of Pennsylvania, more than $750,000 for campaign events since 2016. Quizzed about the mounting dues, the Trump campaign said questions "related to local law enforcement and first responder costs should be directed to US Secret Service".
Also read | Battleground Breakdown: What You Need To Know About The 7 Swing States
US election
After months of intense and bitter poll campaigning, America goes to polls on Tuesday (Nov 5). As per AtlasIntel's latest poll, Mr Trump is leading Kamala Harris in all the seven swing states. In Arizona, Trump holds his widest margin - with a 51.9 per cent to 45.1 per cent lead over Harris.
Meanwhile, in Nevada, 51.4 per cent of voters chose Trump while 45.9 per cent opted for Harris. Despite the lead in polls, experts believe that the final election outcome might be much closer than anticipated.
