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Hell hath no fury like a scorned friend of Donald Trump.
Former New York City mayor and longtime Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani reportedly traveled to Mar-a-Lago in recent months to make a personal appeal to the former president to pay his legal bills, CNN reported Thursday. But Trump, who has a legacy of stinginess and thrift despite his wealth, reportedly rebuffed him, leaving one of his closest friends and most loyal advocates to fend for himself as he fights a sweeping criminal indictment in Georgia over his alleged efforts to overturn Trump's loss there in the 2020 presidential election.
Another former Trump attorney, Michael Cohen—who served prison time after using campaign funds to purchase the silence of former adult film star Stormy Daniels, whom Trump allegedly had an affair with ahead of the 2016 election—believes Giuliani should have seen it coming. In fact, he apparently told him as much.
"Hey Rudy 'Colludy', I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you," Cohen wrote on social media in response to the CNN report. "He didn't pay you for your previous services.
"You have a better chance to raise the money from your ex-wives. I warned you!!!"
Newsweek emailed Giuliani's podcast to try and get in touch with the mayor for comment. But Trump's alleged refusal to pay closely follows an established pattern for a man whose miserly habits as a politician and as a developer have long made headlines.
In addition to using various accounting methods regarding tax obligations over the years—resulting in a lengthy New York Times investigation as well as criminal charges in New York last year—Trump's businesses have engaged in a series of petty business practices over the years that have rankled many of its clients, including recent news he was charging paying members of his already expensive clubs to pay $40 per ticket to attend an LIV golf tournament at one of his clubs.
Jenna Ellis, a co-defendant with Giuliani in Trump's Georgia election case, has already resorted to crowdfunding her legal bills after the former president refused to pay.
Trump's campaign also made a habit of leaving the municipalities where he hosted his campaign events holding the bill for police and other traffic controls during his trips there. Trump still has an outstanding $35,000 bill from the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, for the cost of a 2018 rally he held there, while the cost of a recent rally in Pickens, South Carolina, prompted local officials considering dipping into the city's tourism promotion fund to foot the bill.
From a practical perspective, however, Trump will likely need every dime he can spare as he fights against criminal charges—in four jurisdictions—ranging from fraud to attempting to overturn an election.
Earlier this summer, campaign finance reports revealed that several of Trump's political action committees—particularly, the Save America PAC—had racked up more than $40 million in legal expenses over the course of the past year to defend him, leaving his campaign bleeding funds well before the heat of the Iowa Caucuses this winter.
About the writer
Nick Reynolds is a senior politics reporter at Newsweek. A native of Central New York, he previously worked as a ... Read more