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You Can Now Find The Secret Service In A Trailer Outside Trump Tower

by Alex Gladu
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President Trump has given his security teams their fair share of obstacles in the president's first several months in office. Between Trump's frequent trips to his Florida retreat and the first lady's decision not to move to Washington immediately, protecting the first family has been costly and complicated. Now, the Secret Service has reportedly left Trump Tower in Manhattan after failing to reach a lease agreement with the president's own company.

According to The Washington Post, the security agency had set up shop just one floor below the president's pad, but it was forced to relocate outside the building in July because the Secret Service couldn't reach a lease agreement with the Trump Organization. A spokeswoman for the president's company said in an email to the Post that "it would be more cost effective and logistically practical for the Secret Service to lease space elsewhere."

The president himself doesn't spend much time at Trump Tower these days. He works out of the White House and he often travels to his many golf courses and properties elsewhere in the country. First Lady Melania Trump and the couple's son, Barron Trump, had originally stayed put in Trump Tower, but they relocated to the White House in June after Barron finished the school year.

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While the first lady remained in New York City, the security bills added up. According to the New York City Police Department, it cost around $127,000 to $145,000 per day to protect Melania and Barron in Manhattan. Had they moved to Washington right away, the local law enforcement agency likely wouldn't have taken on those costs.

Still, Manhattan isn't the only place that security forces have faced obstacles to protecting the president. At the start of Trump's presidency, his frequent trips to his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, gave local law enforcement agencies cause for concern. According to news reports, Trump's trips to the so-called Winter White House cost the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office $60,000 in overtime pay for each day the president was in town. Local officials reportedly sought federal assistance with covering some of those costs.

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As the president's permanent home, Trump Tower is required to have Secret Service protection, even when the president and his family aren't there. In the absence of a lease agreement for space in Trump Tower, the Secret Service reportedly remains in a trailer outside the building. To make up for the distance between the command center and the president's home inside the high-rise, the Secret Service has added agents and standing posts throughout the building, according to The New York Post. Protecting the president is never cheap, but protecting a traveling businessman like Trump certainly has its unique challenges.