Democrats on Long Island say Trump rally cost taxpayers at least $1 million, seek reimbursement

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Democrats in the Nassau County Legislature are calling for a federal investigation into taxpayer funding for security at Donald Trump’s rally at the Nassau Coliseum Wednesday. 

According to the Nassau County Minority Office of Budget review, the rally cost $1 million for police overtime alone, and that doesn’t include other departments, and rentals.

Democrats call it misuse of public funds to make taxpayers foot the bill for a partisan event which raised campaign funds. They’ve asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate if finance laws were broken, and for reimbursement from the Trump campaign. 

Dems say campaign finance laws were subverted

“That small army was deployed at the expense of taxpayers,” Democrat Nassau County Legislator Seth Koslow said. “[Republican Nassau County Executive] Bruce Blakeman used the power of his office to blatantly subvert campaign finance laws and provide a million dollars in campaign contribution in the form of protection to Donald Trump.” 

“He has come here, raised money, cost us a tremendous amount of money. We had no say in it,” Nassau County Minority Leader Delia Deriggi-Whitton said. 

Trump’s campaign did agree to pay the operator of the Coliseum, reportedly as much as $500,000. Nassau County Democrats argue an agreement should have been hammered out in advance to also reimburse taxpayers. 

A Trump campaign official said it is the Secret Service, not the campaign, which coordinates with local law enforcement, and the campaign itself does not contract with local governments directly for security or police. 

Republican leaders say activities within the Coliseum were constitutionally protected. 

“Nassau County provides security and safety to all public figures and public events regardless of party affiliation,” Blakeman said in a statement. 

Democrats said there’s no comparison to events like the Cricket World Cup, where the county was reimbursed $800,000. 

“We want everyone safe, but the campaign should pay”  

“We didn’t say the police should not be there. We want the police there. We want everyone safe, but the campaign should pay for that additional service,” Koslow said. 

He said there was no financial benefit to the taxpayers. 

Nassau County residents had different opinions. 

“I don’t think it’s fair we should pay for security for an event that was sponsored, I assume, by the Republican party,” one person said. 

“I think we should. I mean, he’s been almost assassinated twice,” said another. 

Common Cause New York says there’s no uniformity across the nation, and there ought to be. 

“It’s not fair to the taxpayers for any candidate. This should be a uniform rule all across the political spectrum. Campaigns should know when they come to a particular area that they’re going to be on the hook for extra costs,” Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner said.