Amid his soaring speeches and colorful, pro-worker rhetoric, U.S Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has forgotten to walk the talk.
Trump, who has built an image as a protector of workers and jobs throughout the Republican presidential primaries, is now accused of failing to pay hundreds of people – from carpenters to lawyers – for their services.
USA Today reported that more than 3,500 lawsuits have been filed against Trump over the past three decades, and majority of the cases involves American workers claiming that Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.
Some of the lawsuits against Trump, which were all documented by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in the 1990, came from at least 253 project sub-contractors of the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, who all accused Trump of failing to pay them in full or on time for their work. Records showed that Trump’s companies owed a total of $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors on the Taj Mahal project.
More than 200 mechanic’s liens have claimed that they were stiffed by the Republican presidential nominee. The liens range from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, New York, air conditioning and heating company to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York City real estate banking firm.
State regulators also found that the Trump Plaza casino and Trump Mortgage violated at least 24 provisions of the Fair Labor Act to pay minimum wage or overtime.
Last month, Trump Miami Resort Management LLC settled with 48 servers at his Miami golf resort over failing to pay overtime for a special event. The settlements averaged about $800 for each worker and as high as $3,000 for one, according to court records.
Trump for his part defended his decision not to pay the workers – whom he said did not performed well in their job – and brushed aside the lawsuits against him.
“Let’s say that they do a job that’s not good, or a job that they didn’t finish, or a job that was way late. I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely,” Trump said, according to the USA Today report. “That’s what the country should be doing.”
