It’s costing the city of New York more than $1 million a day to protect President-elect Donald Trump and his family, according to a report by CNN Money.
Those funds, provided by hard-working, taxpaying New Yorkers — a group that does not include Trump, who reportedly hasn’t paid federal income taxes in decades — are mostly used to provide a 24-hour police presence in and around Trump Tower. The city will have to keep coming up with that money after the inauguration, because Trump’s wife Melania and 10-year-old son Barron have announced they will keep living there, at least until the end of the school year.
Those costs could drain New York City for up to four years, if Trump makes Trump Tower a part-time home for his entire term. Trump has talked to “advisers about how many nights a week he will spend in the White House,” according to the New York Times. “He has told them he would like to do what he is used to, which is spending time in New York when he can.” Trump voters said they wanted an anti-establishment, anti-coastal-elite and somehow voted for a New York City billionaire who can’t bear to be parted from his $100 million gilded penthouse.
The hefty pricetag on all this is due to the fact that all of Trump’s New York-dwelling family — his kids and grandkids — also have to be afforded NYPD protection. They have a Secret Service detail, but New York City’s local police are “charged with assisting them, particularly in controlling movements of the general public.”
Trump, who previously said he would not only live in the White House but almost never leave its grounds, will cost the city a fortune it could otherwise spend on services to its citizens. Desperate to recoup current and future Trump-related costs, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked for federal aid for the massive expenditures.
“This is a very substantial undertaking. It will take substantial resources,” the mayor said, according to CNN. “We will begin the conversation with the federal government shortly on reimbursement for the NYPD for some of the costs that we are incurring.”
Trump’s decision to remain a semi-staple of New York City’s midtown district — an incredibly populous area in one of the world’s most populous cities — has a number of downsides, especially for the people Trump claimed to represent during his campaign: the little guy, the common people, the small business owners. Traffic congestion in the area is so bad Mayor de Blasio issued an appeal to New Yorkers to avoid the area altogether if they can. As Curbed reports, five buses run along Fifth Avenue, which means huge headaches for those who rely on public transportation. Midtown businesses, especially restaurants, are seeing steep drop-offs in pedestrian foot traffic because of all the chaos in the area.
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