New York City should not be paying for President Donald Trump's security detail when he comes home for a visit, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted in an interview published Saturday.
"[Mayor Bill de Blasio] ought to tell the Congress if we don't pay for it, New York City cops aren't guarding it, and let the Feds put more people in," Schumer said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.
Trump had lived at Trump Tower in Manhattan where his wife, Melania and youngest son, Barron continue to live until he finishes his school year this spring.
After he was elected as president, Trump continued to conduct most of his transition meetings at his Fifth Avenue landmark building. Schumer has an apartment in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Trump on Friday said he has decided to "go back as little as possible" to New York because security is "very expensive for the country" while he is in Manhattan.
"They close up Fifth Avenue and they close up 56th Street," he told Fox News' Martha MacCallum. "I live in Trump Tower, which is right, smack in the middle of everything."
However, Trump has spent many weekends at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, including inviting foreign dignitaries such as Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit him there.
Other New Yorkers have called for reimbursement for the high costs involved in protecting Trump and his family at Trump Tower. According to Police Commissioner James O'Neill, it cost $25.7 million for the 75 day transition period, and continuing expenses may cost more than $50 million a year.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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