The NYPD Commissioner Just Revealed Trump’s Huge Security Bill
In the past few weeks, it has come to light that the Secret Service has already spent millions of extra taxpayer dollars to protect President Donald Trump when he decides to spend his weekends relaxing at his Mar-A-Lago resort instead of doing his job. Now the New York Police Department has revealed how much it costs the taxpayer to secure Trump Tower.
In a letter to New York City’s members of Congress, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill stated that between Election Day and Inauguration Day the president’s security cost $25.7 million dollars. You read that right: in the 75 days between being elected and being sworn in Trump cost the NYPD $342,666 dollars a day. This also doesn’t factor in the additional cost for Secret Service and Department of Defense personnel.
Despite Trump having moved into the White House, his wife Melania and their son Barron remain in Manhattan and will require close protection until they decide to move to Washington D.C. O’Neill estimates that this will cost between $127,000 and $146,000 a day. This is on top of an additional annual $4.5 million in expenses for New York’s Fire Department in relation to the Trump residence. These costs will “increase significantly” if the president decides to visit his family in New York.
O’Neill’s letter asks congressional delegates for extra funds to help new York’s new security costs. Trump Tower is not an ideal place for a presidential residence because of its mixture of retail spaces, commercial and residential floors and its location on one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections. This makes securing the site more complicated, and therefore more costly.
O’Neill commented that the NYPD now has the “dual mission of securing a presidential residence while protecting and serving the millions of Americans, who live in, work in, and visit our great city.” However, his cooperation with the Trump Administration only goes so far. O’Neill sent a memo to his officers on Wednesday clarifying that they do not need to ask victims of crime or witnesses about their immigration status and should not conduct civil immigration enforcement actions unless public safety is at risk.
These bills are truly astronomical and reflect the fact that the presidential family isn’t following expected norms. Usually a president’s family will move with them to the White House, however, Melania has decided to stay behind, officially so that Barron can finish the school year. But new reports suggests she may not move at all, which, coupled with rumors that the couple doesn’t get on as well as they’d like us to think, lead one to believe there are ulterior motives for her staying where she is.
For New York City, renowned for its progressivism and as a Democrat heartland, this is a bitter pill to swallow. Trump has a shoddy reputation there, where his businesses allegedly discriminated against tenants based on their race. Unsurprisingly, the city was the scene of huge protests against Trump’s Muslim ban. Now the city has to cough up so that his family can remain safe in their ivory tower while ordinary people struggle to pay their bills. Disgusting.
