Trump forces taxpayers to foot $450,000 bill for his unhinged racist campaign rally

Donald Trump’s humiliating campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona — where he made racist rantings and spoke in front of an embarrassingly small number of supporters — will cost taxpayers an eye-popping $450,000.

Phoenix officials say Trump racked up the bill because his exercise in self-aggrandizement required employee overtime for many of the city services that had to cater to his needs. These include the police department, which provided security, but also costs incurred by the fire, streets, water, and public works departments.

The event was a car-crash style spectacle, highlighted by Trump’s praise for white supremacists. Discussing the ongoing efforts to remove memorials and monuments that honor the pro-slavery Confederacy, Trump whined to the audience, “They’re trying to take away our heritage.” He also blasted CNN for firing lynching apologist pundit Jeffrey Lord, describing him as “poor Jeffrey.”

One Republican strategist appearing on CNN said that Trump appeared to be “a man who obviously is mentally unstable” during his long-winded speech.

It was no wonder that Arizona officials like Gov. Doug Ducey, who is also a Republican, stayed away from the rally.

Trump’s official re-election campaign paid for space in the convention center and indoor security for the event to the tune of $50,000, but while campaign donations are going toward a slush fund to finance Trump’s legal defense in the ongoing Russia investigations, Arizona taxpayers are still burdened with a large bill.

In addition to Trump’s lavish taxpayer-subsidized vacations to his properties in New Jersey and Florida, Trump officials are following suit in leaving hardworking Americans with the bills for their luxury. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is under fire for spending $60,000 on private jet travel — even though he blasted practice in 2009, when he was a congressman and Democrats were in the majority and the White House.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin recently used a government plane that ferried him into the path to watch the eclipse with his wife.

Arizona Democratic Party spokesman Enrique Gutierrez pointed out the absurdity of the charges for Trump’s campaign rally to the AZCentral.

“It’s 2017. He just won in 2016. This shouldn’t be something that the city of Phoenix should pay for,” he said.

Even Trump appears to have admitted that the event was a bust. He reportedly fired long-time aide George Gigicos, the organizer of the event, after watching cable coverage that showed just how poorly his rally was attended.

And now taxpayers have to pay nearly half a million dollars to subsidize the entire sorry showing.