Protecting the president is a large undertaking that takes a lot of resources, manpower and perhaps most importantly; money. President-elect Donald Trump is set to assume office on January 20, but in the meantime, local law enforcement have the unique responsibility of protecting the President-elect and his family in one of the busiest and most hectic cities in the world, New York City. While one would naturally expect the cost of protecting Trump and his family to be a significant amount, the amount of money it costs to protect them on a daily basis may shock you.
According to three officials from New York City, it costs the city over $1 million per day to protect President-elect Trump and his family. A variety of factors are involved in the hefty price tag. Among those is the fact that not only is Trump, his wife Melania, and their 10-year-old son Baron entitled to Secret Service protection, but also his adult children and grandchildren; who all live in the city.
The NYPD and the Secret Service are working together in order to ensure the safety of the President-elect and his family, though New York Mayor Bill de Blasio did acknowledge in a press conference that the responsibility of protecting them "is a very substantial undertaking" that would "take substantial resources." He went on to say that they "will begin the conversation with the federal government shortly on reimbursement for the NYPD for some of the costs that [they] are incurring."
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
All presidents and president-elects are required to have local law enforcement protection when they return home while they serve. But what makes President-elect Trump's protection circumstances so unique is that he lives in the most densely populated neighborhood in the most populous city in the country. The amount of resources that have to be deployed each time the President-elect comes back to his home in Trump Tower requires is unprecedented.
Mayor de Blasio said the following regarding the unprecedented nature of protecting the President-elect, "We have never had a situation where a [President] would be here on such a regular basis. The details of his future plans are unknown, but we certainly know over these next 65 days [until the inauguration] he will be here regularly. The NYPD is up to the challenge and the city of New York is up to the challenge, I have no doubt about that."
What isn't unprecedented is the prospect of the city receiving reimbursements for the massive cost of protecting Trump. According to records, New York City received $26 million in reimbursement for protecting world leaders from June 30, 2015 through June 30, 2016.
