It costs NYC more than $1M a day to protect Donald Trump

Though part of Fifth Avenue will remain open in front of Trump Tower, the overall logistics of securing the area surrounding the building are still a bit of a nightmare for the NYPD and Secret Service, who must deal with traffic snarls, protests, security checkpoints, and angry pedestrians. If this wasn’t enough of a cause for concern, CNN Money reports that the cost of protecting Donald Trump is more than $1 million a day, a figure that won’t decrease any time soon since the president elect claims he’ll spend weekends in his penthouse and Melania and Barron will continue to live there until the end of the school year. Plus, all of Trump’s adult children and grandchildren live in the city and are therefore entitled to Secret Service protection.

As 6sqft previously explained, security at Trump Tower is more complicated than it would be elsewhere. Not only is it’s retail base public, but “since it’s at the top of the 664-foot building, it’s reached via elevator, which makes it difficult to get in or out quickly, and because it’s from 1980, pre-9/11, it wasn’t built to withstand an attack. Plus, several other high rises nearby have views of the Tower, meaning they’ll need to be monitored by the Secret Service as well.” There’s also the two-mile no-fly zone that’s currently in effect and the fact that Barron will need an armored vehicle to take him to school, where agents will sweep the property daily.

At a press conference on Friday, Mayor de Blasio said, “The number one imperative here is safety and security. We owe that to the president elect, his family and his team.” However, he also cited the need for financial assistance since never before has there been such an ongoing need to protect a world leader in the city. “This is a very substantial undertaking. It will take substantial resources. We will begin the conversation with the federal government shortly on reimbursement for the NYPD for some of the costs that we are incurring.” In the 12 months ending June 30, the city received $26 million in federal reimbursements for such costs, which comes out to roughly $500,000 a week, or half of what it costs to protect Trump in just one day.

[Via CNN Money]

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