Freehold Music Center owner: Trump stiffed me for $30,000

FREEHOLD — The retired, 88-year-old owner of the Freehold Music Center says in a new advertisement by Hillary Clinton's campaign he feels as if Donald Trump stole $30,000 from him — after being pushed around by Trump's Taj Mahal on a business deal decades ago.

"I was just a small business owner, trying to make a living, sell my pianos, take care of my customers," Michael Diehl says in the ad.

In the ad, Diel recounts receiving an order to deliver pianos worth $100,000 to the hotel. He says he got the "runaround at first," trying to follow up on the bill a month later. Eventually, he says, he was told to take 70 cents on the dollar if he didn't want to fight Trump's casino in bankruptcy court.

It's the third in a series of videos the Clinton campaign has unveiled, targeting Trump's dealings in and around Atlantic City, arguing Trump's done harm to small businesses throughout his career.

The ad also includes footage from an August Fox News debate, in which Trump boats about his business acumen — saying lenders with whom he played hardball "are not babies. They are killers. These are not the nice sweet little people you think."

"The people that got hurt in Atlantic City are honest, hard-working people just like me," Diehl says in the campaign ad. "I'm certainly not a killer."

Diehl also recently told the Asbury Park Press the same story.

“I had no other choice but to swallow the bitter pill,” Diehl, told The Press.

WNYC recently reported there are "hundreds like Diehl who had to take pennies on the dollar for their work: roofers, plumbers and others named as creditors in court documents."

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