2/19/2017
By Ivan Pereira
Sen. Charles Schumer urged the president on Sunday to relieve New York of its financial burden for protecting Trump Tower.
The majority of the $100,000-a-day cost for protecting the midtown highrise and Donald Trump’s family is paid for by city taxpayers, and that number is expected to rise, according to the senator. He proposed that the president allocate federal funds to reimburse the city in his White House budget.
“It’s just unfair for New York City taxpayers to pay for the job of protecting the president, which is a federal responsibility,” Schumer said at a news conference in his Midtown office.
White House representatives didn’t return messages for comment.
Between the Election Day and Inauguration Day, the city spent $35 million to protect the tower, but when Mayor Bill de Blasio asked Congress for reimbursement, it approved only $7 million.
Austin Finan, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said the city is continuing to tally the costs.
“Communication with Congress and the White House is ongoing and we remain committed to seeking full reimbursement,” Finan said
Schumer said he doesn’t expect the GOP-controlled congress to give New York any more support. He added that he would be open to working with the representatives of the Florida counties near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where he has recently been spending his weekends, to make sure their expenses are also covered by the federal government.
“This is an additional and unusual expense. We have not had a president with an auxiliary White House,” he said.
When asked about Trump’s recent tweets where he called the press the “enemy of the American People,” Schumer said he wanted the president to stop with the angry name-calling and “roll up his sleeves and get to work.”
“The press plays a very important function in our society and it’s not going to serve him well in the long run to demean them [and] belittle them,” the senator said.
