Ex-chauffeur sues Trump

Former driver says president owes him wages.

NEW YORK – Add President Donald Trump’s former personal driver to the thousands of plaintiffs who have said they’re owed money by the billionaire real estate developer and reality TV star now serving as the nation’s commander in chief.

Noel Cintron, the chauffeur for Trump and his family for more than 25 years, alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday that Trump failed to give him required overtime pay and raised his salary only twice since 2003, when he was paid $62,700. His salary was raised to $68,000 in 2006.

The final increase, a $7,000 raise to $75,000 annually, was granted only because the ex-driver “was induced to surrender his health benefits obtained through Trump,” the lawsuit alleged. The move saved Trump nearly $18,000 in health insurance premiums, Cintron charged.

Filed in New York County Supreme Court against two of Trump’s companies, the lawsuit alleges that Trump “shirked his obligation” to provide any overtime pay for more than 20 years. However, the legal action acknowledged that Cintron by law could only seek recovery of time-and-a-half pay for approximately 3,300 hours of uncompensated overtime during the past six years.

“In an utterly callous display of unwarranted privilege and entitlement and without even a minimal sense of noblesse oblige President Donald Trump has, through the defendant entities, exploited and denied significant wages to his own longstanding personal driver,” the lawsuit alleged.

In response, the Trump organization issued a statement that said: “Mr. Cintron was at all times paid generously and in accordance with the law. Once the facts come out we expect to be fully vindicated in court.”

Cintron has not been Trump’s driver since the 2016 presidential election because that duty is handled by the U.S. Secret Service. Cintron’s legal action seeks unpaid overtime pay, plus additional payments and penalties under New York labor statutes.