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Trump Taking a Bite Out of the Big Apple’s Police Budget

President’s New York protection costs estimated at $300,000 a day

New York Rep. Dan Donovan wants to see New York City law enforcement reimbursed for extra expenses when President Donald Trump is in the Big Apple. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
New York Rep. Dan Donovan wants to see New York City law enforcement reimbursed for extra expenses when President Donald Trump is in the Big Apple. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

A New York Republican is adding his name to the growing list of lawmakers who want to see local law enforcement reimbursed for the costs associated with protecting President Donald Trump when he isn’t at the White House. 

Rep. Dan Donovan on Tuesday asked the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee to allocate additional money for the city of New York in the subcommittee’s fiscal 2018 spending bill. Donovan said the $7 million added to a continuing resolution in December does not come close to the actual costs incurred by the city to protect Trump and his family.

Donovan said patrol logs and the city’s collective bargaining agreement show the city’s cost for protecting Trump and the first family between the election and Inauguration Day reached $25 million. Now that Trump is president, Donovan told the subcommittee that the price tag is about $127,000 a day when Trump is in Washington, D.C., and about $300,000 a day when he visits New York.

“The security burden on local police jurisdictions, like the New York City Police Department, between President Trump’s election and inauguration was unprecedented: President Trump worked and resided at one of the busiest intersections in the world — an area through which thousands of vehicles and pedestrians pass every hour, and that has become the city’s number one tourist attraction,” Donovan said, according to a statement provided by his office.

“The location of Trump Tower in the heart of America’s largest city requires more complex security arrangements than have been needed for past presidents,” said Donovan, who spoke to the panel during a day set aside for appropriators to hear from members.

Following the inauguration, Trump moved to Washington, but his wife and school-age son stayed at their home in New York City. That has led to a continued need for the city to keep additional police and emergency personnel at Trump Tower.

“I think we can all agree that protecting the president of the United States is a national priority and honor, but circumstances have dictated that the cost of such a protection fall disproportionately on the local jurisdictions,” Donovan said.

The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Nita M. Lowey, and the top Democrat on the Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee, Jose E. Serrano, both of New York, called for a similar increase last month. But they called for the reimbursements to come through the still-incomplete fiscal 2017 spending bill instead of from the fiscal 2018 appropriations bill.

“There is no reason why New York taxpayers should have to foot the bill for this enormous undertaking,” they wrote in a statement on Feb. 23. “Protecting the president of the United States and his family is a federal responsibility. New York must be fully reimbursed for the costs in manpower, overtime and operations, including the $25.7 million to protect the president-elect and his family between the Election Day and the inauguration and the ongoing costs during his presidency.”

In addition to requests for New York City, there could be requests from Florida lawmakers at some point. Trump has repeatedly traveled to his private residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach since taking the oath of office. There is likely an increased cost to the local and state police departments there to accommodate the president.

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