RE: Secret Service Booted To The Sidewalk After Trump Tower Rent Dispute

HuffPost

Report: Secret Service Booted To The Sidewalk After Trump Tower Rent Dispute

Ed Mazza, HuffPost Thu, Aug 3 5:20 PM PDT

It looks like the Secret Service has been kicked to the curb.

The Washington Post reports that a lease dispute has forced the agency to move its Trump Tower command post out of the building, where it had been one floor below President Donald Trump's apartment, and into a trailer on the sidewalk.

"After much consideration, it was mutually determined that it would be more cost effective and logistically practical for the Secret Service to lease space elsewhere," a Trump Organization spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost.

Trump has not spent a night inside the building since his inauguration, although first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, continued to live at the property until they moved to the White House in June. 

The U.S. military also leases space inside the building under a separate arrangement that costs $130,000 per month, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. 

Earlier this year, Congress approved $120 million to cover some of the costs of protecting the president and his family, with half of the money going to the Secret Service. 

The agency has faced significantly increased costs as it tries to keep up with a president who spends many of his weekends at one of several different residences. 

In the first three months of the year, the Secret Service spent $35,000 just on golf cart rentals at the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, CBS News reported. 

It's not clear what the specific source of the current dispute is, and the agency told The Hill that "there has been no impact to the security plan" as a result of moving the command post.

Last year, Trump was criticized for raising the price inside his building for a space he leased to his campaign, nearly quintupling the rent when he stopped self-funding and began soliciting donations.

"If I was a donor, I'd want answers," a prominent Republican National Committee member told HuffPost at the time. 

This article originally appeared on HuffPost .

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