Trump wanted the ABQ convention center for his campaign stump

Donald Trump’s campaign wanted to hold a New Mexico campaign rally this week at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

But the former president’s campaign had to ultimately settle for a different venue.

Ray Roa, general manager for the Albuquerque Convention Center, confirmed Monday that Trump staffers reached out to try and rent the convention center.

In a statement, Roa said the date didn’t work as there is remediation work scheduled to the city’s main water line that runs to the convention center over a three-day period this week. He said the work has been planned since late September when the issue was first identified.

A spokesperson for Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said Monday the city supports the convention center and the “business decisions they make about operations and bookings.”

City Council President Dan Lewis said he doesn’t buy that explanation.

Lewis, who represents a traditionally Republican voting council district, questioned why the work on the water line needed to take place this week. He said the former president could have safely pulled off an indoor rally in Downtown Albuquerque.

“Just think about it, they just did Madison Square Garden in downtown Manhattan, right in the heart of the city of New York,” Lewis said. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t.”

He also said the mayor — who served in state office as a Democrat — is trying to block the rally.

“Unfortunately, the city of Albuquerque has an extremely partisan mayor, a pawn to the Democrat Party, playing a political game with a presidential candidate. It’s likely that Tim Keller put the city at risk of serious election interference,” Lewis said in a text to the Journal.

Keller administration officials accused Lewis of politically-driven actions.

“It’s highly inappropriate that a city councilor tried to cancel a Convention Center construction project and pressure staff for political gain,” said Alex Bukoski, a spokesperson for the city’s general services department.

For his part, Roa said he was not told by the mayor or any other elected officials to deny the campaign’s inquiry.

The rally is instead slated to take place Thursday at noon at a private hangar owned by CSI Aviation near the Albuquerque International Sunport, according to Trump’s campaign website. The president of CIA Aviation is former state Republican Party chairman Allen Weh, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2014.

The Trump campaign announced the rally on Sunday. The former president’s visit will mark his first stop in New Mexico during this year’s general election cycle.

Democrat Kamala Harris has not made any stops this year in the state, which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.

Trump’s last visit to Albuquerque

Trump previously held a May 2016 rally at the Albuquerque Convention Center that prompted raucous protests and property damage Downtown.

When Trump later returned to New Mexico — as president — for a September 2019 rally in Rio Rancho, he spent a night in Albuquerque.

That led city leaders to send the Trump campaign a bill for $211,175.94 to cover police coverage, barricades and lost work time, since the U.S. Secret Service required City Hall and other buildings to be temporarily closed.

But the Trump campaign never paid that bill.

Meanwhile, when President Joe Biden visited Albuquerque in November 2022, the Democratic National Committee paid the $1,000 tab for the rental of the Ted M. Gallegos Community Center to hold a political rally.

Lewis called the bill from Albuquerque “frivolous” and “bogus” and said the city didn’t publicly bill other notable politicians, like Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.

A breakdown of the charges from Trump’s 2019 rally in Rio Rancho lists $71,242.07 for police services, $7,102.22 for barricades and $132,831.65 for employee leave, amounting to $211,175.94

With compounded interest, the current balance for the Trump campaign’s unpaid bills in Albuquerque comes to $444,986, said Staci Drangmeister, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office.

“The city had to shut down Downtown and close City Hall back in 2019 when Trump came to Albuquerque,” Drangmeister told the Journal. “The city still paid the employees for the hours they did not work, which totaled $132,831.65.”

Drangmeister also said the city has billed campaigns that demand extra time and equipment, but generally does not charge dignitaries who are visiting in an official capacity.

As for the outstanding bill, Keller said Monday the city would continue to seek collection.

“Trump still owes Albuquerque half a million dollars and collections will keep reminding him about it until he pays,” the mayor said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos on Monday referred questions about security for Trump’s latest visit to the U.S. Secret Service.

The city of Rio Rancho did not seek reimbursement from Trump for his 2019 rally, citing a cost estimate of $239,475.

Some cities requiring upfront payments

Other cities have also sought to charge the Trump campaign for costs associated with campaign rallies, including Tucson, Arizona.

While campaigning in 2016, Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — who was vying for the Democratic nomination that year — racked up bills that their campaigns refused to pay.

Andy Squire, a spokesman for the city of Tucson, said the Trump and Sanders campaign rallies generated much higher costs than other events due to their public safety implications. The city billed the Sanders campaign about $44,000 and billed the Trump campaign roughly $81,000, he added.

“That was true not just for us in Tucson, but was the experience across the nation,” Squire said in a statement. “As a result, many cities incurred significant unreimbursed costs associated with providing public safety at these events.”

The city now requires the campaign to pay in advance. Trump has held multiple rallies in Tucson since, one as recent as September.