Former President Trump said he would not pay the company that rented his campaign equipment after his microphone went silent for about 20 minutes at a rally in Detroit.
Trump was in the midst of speaking about his tariff policy at the event on Friday, about to call it “the most beautiful word in the dictionary,” before the microphone went down. Someone handed the former president another microphone to try, but it didn’t work either.
The crowd remained cheery during the interlude while Trump paced around the stage, chanting at times and waiting for the rally to resume.
After the microphone started working again, Trump opened by saying, “Now what happens is I won’t pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this crap.”
“I won’t pay the bill and then we’ll have a story that Trump didn’t pay the bill to a contractor. No, when they do that kind of a job, don’t pay the bill,” he said. “That’s terrible.”
“If it goes out again, I’ll sue the ass off that company,” he later added. “We’re gonna sue ‘em.”
Trump has previously vowed not to pay a company when a tech issue has happened during his rally, including in June when a problem occurred with his teleprompter in Las Vegas.
Hundreds of contractors who have worked for Trump in the past said ahead of his 2016 election that Trump had not paid them over the years.
Trump continued his speech and laid out his economic agenda, saying his administration will cut corporate taxes, energy costs and regulations if they make their products in the U.S. and hire American workers. He said if companies do not make their products here, they will have to pay a “stiff” tariff.
Trump argued that he is not a “protectionist” as some would say but just “pro-worker.”
He has called for wide-ranging tariffs on many products if elected, saying it would create a “manufacturing boom,” despite critics arguing that it would cause costs to be passed on to consumers and worsen inflation.