Tea party bailout: Trump to pay local group’s disputed $6,000 bill for Boca Raton rally he headlined

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson is relaying word that Donald Trump will pay more than $6,000 that Boca Raton says it is owed for police officers and barriers that were deployed for an April South Florida Tea Party rally that Trump keynoted.

Wilkinson questioned the charges said his group didn’t have the money in its coffers to cover them.

“We’re working on paying it,” Wilkinson said earlier this month. “We don’t have the money right now, but we’re good at paying our bills.”

Here’s a statement from Trump adviser Michael Cohen as reported in Politico:

“An unexpectedly large number of citizens peaceably assembled at the Boca Tea party event, hosted by Everett Wilkinson, that drew a crowd in excess of 5000 people. Mr. Trump is honored that so many people came to hear him speak on important political and social issues. Mr. Trump does not want any citizen group to be disparaged or burdened for exercising their first amendment right and has agreed to personally cover the full obligation to the City of Boca Raton.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 at 7:21 am and is filed under George Bennett, Tea Party movement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Tough week for Tea Party ends with fizzling rally

The Columbia Tea Party went from Donald Trump to jilted chump after the celebrity businessman canceled his appearance at Thursday’s State House rally, and state legislators approved tax breaks and spending that the group opposed.

Trump’s decision to not enter the GOP presidential race left local Tea Party leaders stewing about the way they had been treated. But about 30 people were on hand Thursday to thank Gov. Nikki Haley, lawmakers and activists for their work to require more on-the-record Legislative votes.

It was all part of a tough week for the state’s Tea Party movement.

On Wednesday, the S.C. House reversed course and approved a controversial sales tax break for online retailer Amazon. Thursday, the S.C. Senate voted down a proposal that would have rebated any better-than-expected state tax collections to income tax filers.

Columbia Tea Party chairman Allen Olson expected as many as 2,000 would have attended Thursday’s rally had Trump been there. But The Donald, a favorite of many who attended the group’s Tax Day rally with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., elected to not run and dropped the rally from his schedule.

“It was a kick in the gut, but it gives you a chance to regroup,” said Olson. “He’s a businessman. He showed his worth.”

Olson said the legislative losses will motivate Tea Party members, adding they will turn their focus now on a bill to cap punitive damages in lawsuits and other legislative issues.

Other Tea Party activists agreed.

Haley told the meeting she was forming the Governor’s Tea Party Coalition to be run from her office. The group will be made up of volunteers who will work with Haley on issues, advocacy and grass-roots organizing, spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

Philip Stanley came to Thursday’s rally from Asheville, N.C., in hopes of seeing Trump but said he was pleased to learn Haley would headline the event instead.

Stanley said he respected Trump for directly questioning President Barack Obama about his birth certificate without fear of being labeled with “the R word” for racist. (Obama subsequently produced his long-form birth certificate, and Stanley said Thursday that he did not dispute the president’s U.S. citizenship.)

“I never thought he was serious,” Stanley said of Trump. “He’s a promoter. ... Then, I heard Nikki Haley was here. That’s almost as good.”

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Tea Party planning big rally in KCK

A coalition of national tea party groups is planning a weekend political rally at The Woodlands racetrack this fall that could bring tens of thousands of people to the area.

The Freedom Jamboree will begin Sept. 30, although gates will open for campers and tailgaters two days earlier. Organizers said the event will include speeches, music and fireworks.

The event will climax with a presidential straw poll on Oct. 1.

“Freedom Jamboree is the national tea party event of 2011,” said William Temple of Brunswick, Ga., one of the organizers at a Tuesday news conference to announce details of the event. “We’re not going back to D.C. this year, we’re coming here to K.C.”

Temple said admittance to the event will be free and as many as 300,000 people might attend.

The coalition isn’t directly affiliated with better-known tea party groups such as FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, or the Tea Party Express. Those groups and others have been invited to the event.

But organizers of several past tea party events wanted to reflect the grass-roots nature of their movement by avoiding a direct connection with those organizations, Temple said.

Hundreds of state tea party groups have been asked to send a delegate.

Potential GOP presidential candidates also have been invited, and at least one — Rep. Michele Bachmann — is expected to attend.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, said the jamboree could play an important role in the presidential nomination process in his party.

“We don’t have a well-defined presidential field,” Kobach said. “We don’t have a presidential candidate who’s clearly assumed the mantle of speaking for the tea party. All of these things can crystallize in Kansas City. … That’s why I think you’re going to see some important things happening at this festival.”

@ Go to KansasCity.com for a video report. To reach Dave Helling, call 816-234-4656 or send email to dhelling@kcstar.com.

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