Donald Trump, the landlord, is going to be making money from taxpayers assigned to protect Donald Trump, the president-elect.
According to a report from The New York Post on Thursday, the Secret Service is in talks with the Trump Organization about renting two vacant floors of the 68-story Trump Tower. In order to protect the president-elect and his family, they will need to work with the NYPD to operate a command post containing more than 250 agents and police officers. Those two floors could cost more than $3 million each year.
As The New York Post reported on Tuesday, the vacant 17th floor of Trump Tower is priced at $105 per square foot, which would value it at $1.5 million a year. It includes six large south-facing outdoor terraces, private elevators, and polished concrete floors. Similarly, the 15th floor — which served as a headquarters for the Trump campaign — could be available, with the Federal Election Commission estimating that the campaign paid $169,000 a month on utilities alone while there.
Because Trump Tower has experienced a nearly 40 percent drop in sales and rentals over the past year (a fate that it has shared with other Trump properties since the start of Donald Trump's controversial presidential campaign), the Secret Service location could make up for any possible shortfall in the president-elect's pockets.
Trump will also be paid from the Secret Service for flights aboard his company's Boeing 757 and Cessna Citation jets, according a Bloomberg report from last week. Trump was paid almost $6 million for the travel. As Secret Service spokesman Joe Casey explained, this is in accordance with FEC rules requiring those traveling with a campaign to pay for their transportation.
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