According to news reports, the Secret Service is about to lease an entire floor of the Trump Tower in order to provide proper security for Trump, his family and especially his wife and young son who will remain in New York until the end of the semester for Barron. Now that's nothing new in and of itself, seeing as how the Secret Service has done that for every President and their family.

What bothers me, are the following:

1 - Conflicts of interest - Trumps assets should have already been placed in a blind trust, not entrusted to his offspring, some or all of whom could wind up in the West Wing in some advisory capacity at the least.

Instead of bitching and moaning and whining about recounts and popular votes, which should be a non-starter for all the reasons outlined by several others here in P&R over the last two weeks, why hasn't anyone bothered taking Trump to task for this egregious financial machination?  

2 - The cost to the taxpayer could run as high as 1 million dollars a day. The lease payment alone will cost 1.5 million per month. And THAT money goes directly to the Trump Tower, which is owned by... care to guess?  

So if I read this correctly, the taxpayers will be paying Donald Trump for his own security while POTUS. And people don't see anything wrong here? Come on!!! This is a Conflict of Interest that even the most die hard Trump supporter must recognize as being completely inappropriate.

Fuck the recount and the whiners who are crying about popular vote this and popular vote that. Spilled milk, kids, get over it. Time to put Hillary out to pasture.  

If Trump is allowed to continue with this BLATANT conflict of interest, then THAT'S where there is a real problem that must be addressed.

I hear Trump plans to use his own jet instead of AF 1 to save money, and he wont be taking a salary. How nice. Except his bloody jet isn't any more or better equipped to handle the overwhelming duties of the POTUS than his Trump Tower is at the present time.

Wanna change something wrong? Start with closing the loopholes that have been blown wide open by Trumps recalcitrance at honoring financially responsible protocols.

Or does that no longer matter now to a nation that has gone flaccid with superficiality and a focus on bullshit (ie RECOUNT!!!!!) instead of substance (egregious conflicts of interest). Obama himself said there was no there there.  

The barn door is broken and the cows have scattered. Are you going to repair the door, or pointlessly try milking chickens instead?

Trump is a unique candidate due to him being a businessman/real estate mogul. He and/or his family will be spending a great amount of time in Trump Tower.

The SS's job is to protect the POTUS and family wherever he/they is/are. They believe they need to occupy space in the tower to best protect him/them.

Now, if the SS was't renting the space and paying Trump, someone else would be, correct? Should Trump just give them the space, free of charge? That doesn't seem fair either.

I agree its an unusual situation Doc, but unique situations call for unique answers.

Maybe I am missing something here, as I haven't looked into this too deeply, but this doesn't strike me as something to get all upset about

Regarding #2, I believe VP Biden has charged the SS rent for a spot at his Delaware home and the Clintons were owed rent for their NY home but I think they refused to accept. The amounts were far less but the principle is the same.  

Regarding #1, as a matter of record I don't think the blind trust laws apply to POTUS and VP as they do other federal officials. Nonetheless, something should be done but this is breaking new ground here. Calls for immediate divestiture I think are unreasonable. Selling Trump Tower and other real estate is no where near the same as selling a stock and bond portfolio. Give it some more time.

As for the rest of your rant, I could not agree more. Spot on.

I would add that I think the recount is meant to serve two purposes 1) fill the Green party coffers and 2) further attempt to de-legitimize a Trump Presidency. There is also a very real potential end game of throwing the choice to the House of Representatives if enough Electoral votes are tied up as of the deadline of December 13th.

BTW, no way will he not be using AF1, too many national security and safety issues.

-- Modified on 11/27/2016 10:03:55 PM

It's just another one of those fun ideas Trump had while campaigning... like building a wall that Mexico will pay for.  Now that he's staring the Presidency in the face, reality intrudes.

No wall.
No investigation of Hillary.
No doing away with Obamacare on Day 1... Or 2... Or...

Of course, it will depend on what he hears from the last person he talks to on each subject.

The SS renting space at Trump tower is only temporary, but his holdings in Trump Enterprise or whatever it's called, while in his presidency will be run by his sons, Uday and Qusay and not a blind trust is disturbing.But with a Republican House, who's going to challenge him? He'll just tweet the shit out of anyone one who does and poof, they'll be primaried. Look at Trump International Hotel in DC, that's a building being rented by Trump from the post office,the person who will run that will be a Trump appointee soon...see the conflict of interest in the the rent and the taxes. There's more to come, we haven't seen the end of this.
And as far as Trump continuing to fly his own jet, shit he could fly a cessna as far as I'm concern.


-- Modified on 11/27/2016 9:51:19 PM

The Secret Service spends millions to secure the domicile of the POTUS and outgoing POTUS.

They spent 24 million dollars to refurbish and secure GWB's Crawford compound after he left office.  
They will spend some 18 million to secure the new Kalorama digs of the Obama family after they leave the White House.

That plus the day to day protective details assigned to a former POTUS for the rest of their lives.

I get it, I really do. The knowledge and secrets revealed to the POTUS make a former President a VERY high value target, never more so than in today's volatile world.

But we are expected now to be OK with a cost of as much as 1 million dollars PER DAY to secure the Trump Tower even when Trump is not there. Security is being beefed up at Mar-A-Lago as well to the tune of millions of dollars. I was pissed off at Dick Cheney getting a 40 million dollar upgrade to his Wyoming farm on top of the millions spent to secure his manor outside DC. All at taxpayer expense. But OK, I get it, the perks of the job.

I'm definitely NOT OK at the possibility of $400 MILLION per year or more it will cost to secure Trump domiciles.
So what if Trump doesn't take a salary or expense account. Big Fucking Deal; $569,000 a year is chump change and doesn't even cover the cost of his hairdresser.  

An unusual situation, indeed. And one fraught with inconsistency.

But unique situation or not, the idea is simply unacceptable as long as Donald Trump and his family are in control of the Trump empire.

Look Jack, you know I was not going to be pleased regardless of who won, and I do not question the results of the election. I think the brouhaha over popular v electoral is bullshit; them's the rules people, get over it, or change it for the future. This latest attempt by sore losers and whiny little shitheads at recall is also just bullshit.

But there are a great many things about this entire process that just does not sit well with me. Too much blatant disregard for proper protocol and procedure. Robert's Rules of Order have already been thrown out the window. Proper respect for the transition of power is out the window.

What's next? An Electoral College mutiny to anoint Hillary at the last minute? Can't wait to see that happen.

Perhaps Gag can estimate the odds of Civil War if they tried that?

I don't know. He seem to be able to get away with a lot of shit just by owning up to it right away and saying staff like "why would I wanna do that? I'm rich!"  

If Trump says something like like "my plane is better then AF1, I'm used to it, I work better around my things" I bet he'd be able to get away with it just because it would sound believable. I bet he'd be able to get away with a lot of shit that those before him weren't able to. This is no Obama or Clinton. This isn't even Reagan or Bush. His house is better then the White House, and I suspect it's much better. The interesting thing is that he's actually gonna make money by renting space to the government (secret service) so it can protect him and his family. I have a feeling that after looking around their accommodations in Trump Tower many secret service agents will try to move their families with them their too  

Don't you see the guy pushes back almost on everything and if he sees them bending he knows he'd be able to get at least something out of it. For Trump it's all in deal making, he seem to get an adrenaline rush from it, whether with other businessmen, government or other world leaders and that means the more unreasonable your starting position is the better deal you'd be able to get in the end.  

I wonder how all this conflict of interest staff is gonna play out. After all there are no laws that would force him to divest and his position is that everybody knew he wasn't divesting and elected him anyway.  

Even if DT doesn't have his $10 billion now, at the end of his presidency he'd have it for sure. If he does a good job, nobody, besides a few lawyers, would give a fuck. He'd get on TV and asks "his people" to call their congressmen and tell them to leave (poor) DT alone so he can continue his "making America great again" crap. And they will call, and congress (few incensed liberals notwithstanding) will back down.  

If DT screws up though he WILL end up in jail with some of his assets confiscated, just like Madoff.

Maybe the two sides will negotiate a much cheaper rent than what Trump Inc. would get from a private entity? Would that be a step in the right direction?

But be honest, Doc. Would you really feel better if the amount wasn't the $400 mil you state but a mere $300 mil? Or 200?

If I can read between the lines, it sounds like at least some of your disdain re: this topic is based on your hatred (or strong dislike, if you prefer) of Trump. Is that fair?

And if that did play a part in your reasoning, I really wouldn't argue with you. I am certain R's would be making the same point about any D doing the same thing. I am certainly not saying you don't have a point nor am I belittling your point nor am I saying you are being partisan on this.  

And yes, I hear you about a conflict of interest, but the POTUS should have the ability to determine where and when he spends his time and I think that outweighs the conflict.

What if a hypothetical POTUS had 5 previous marriages and 22 children? Ok a stretch, but play this out. All his children/family would need SS protection at an enormous cost. So where do you draw the line at how much is too much, money wise, to spend on potential life saving measures? I don't have the answer to that.

But do you really think he should be forced to sell Trump Tower? Force to spend all his time in the White House, just to save the public a few bucks? Yes that is more practical, but again, nothing about Trump is practical about him being a real estate honcho living in a high rise in NYC.

For whatever reason the POTUS and V-POTUS were exempt by law re: conflicts. Trump will most likely exploit that. It is up to the next congress and next POTUS to take it up legislatively and close that loophole, isn't it?

What else would you do now?

-- Modified on 11/28/2016 12:52:05 AM

END OF MESSAGE

Far less? Dr H we are talking an order of magnitude that is truly (pardon the expression) HUGE.  
Joe Biden has been charging the SS $2,200 per month for a cottage in his family compound, and the Clinton's were/are entitled to $1100 per month rent, which they declined to accept. As I understand it, the amount provided is based on a government formula. What government formula is copacetic with a cost of over 1 million per day? Please don't bring up Clinton or Obama or Bush or Reagan. They all soaked the taxpayers, some of it realistic and reasonable, some of it excessive.  
But this is an entirely different paradigm here and it is excessive beyond any reasonable expectation for the taxpayer imho. I beg to differ, Dr H. as the actions of the POTUS and VPOTUS can have a profound effect on world financial markets. The POTUS can and does influence world markets and therefore they must place assets in a vlind trust during their time in office at the least. I do not say he must sell his assets. The blind trust is designed to avoid that exact scenario.
    How can it fill Green coffers if they spend it all on a recount? I might have gone along for the ride on that point but all of a sudden Hillary is on board the whiners and losers express and the money just flows and flows from George Soros and other interested parties.  

There is no realistic way they can make the 12/13 deadline and maintain integrity.
If my math is correct, should the recount tie up the Electoral votes from Wis Mich and Penn, that leaves Trump with 260 and Clinton at 232 which as you pointed out, throws it to the House. And takes us to the brink of Civil War. That won't be on Trump. And only a fool really believes this was all a Jill Stein inspiration with no outside influence.  Cheers Dr H.

.....on if the bossman brings hookers to the Towers. The SS are well versed in such matters, after the SS hooker scandal in Columbia.

but the amounts here seem to be overblown. First off the $400,000,000 you quote doesn't flow to Trump, the biggest item here is quoted by an unnamed source that we can only assume is with the NYPD who "claims" up to 300 officers a day may be needed at a cost of a million dollars a day. Does anyone else here wonder about that math. That would mean each officer would be costing the taxpayers $33,333.33 a DAY each. I call bullshit. As for you quoting that outrageous number several times, implying that Trump would be the beneficiary of a million dollar a day windfall, VERY sloppy on your part. I expect better from you.

As for a blind trust, that is not going to be as easy as Trump's holdings are hardly liquid, and short of divestiture, it's unreasonable to expect that he won't still be the de facto boss, even if he turns over the day to day operations to his kids. Yes, this is a problem, and I am very interested to see how both Trump and the opposition deal with this.

That number was pulled right out of someone's ass, The "rent" for two floors in Trump tower is 3 million a year, a far cry from $400 million. This $400 million dollar number is an extrapolation of some unnamed LE official who "claims" the cost of providing up to 300 NYPD offices "could" run up to a million dollars a day. That means the city would be billing the US Government $33,333,333.33 per officer, per day. Now who's fleecing the tax payers, Trump? or the City of NY?

1) Yes, Trump's assets should be placed in a blind trust.  BUT it's unreasonable to expect this would already have been done.  After all, his assets are not liquid like stocks and bonds.  They are hard real estate assets that could take months to sell.  Second, he's simply not going to do it.  He has torn up the rule book, first by not revealing his tax returns, and has gotten away with it.  So he's certainly not going to sell his prized properties.  You might as well get over it.  I have.
2) It's going to cost $1 million a day to protect his fat ass one way or the other, so who cares where the money goes?  Do you really expect him to not live in his own home?  Please.
As The Bard said, this is all "sound and fury signifying nothing."  Don't worry, you will have lots of other quite tangible things to protest in the coming years.  Save your energy for that

Security will be tight, after all, who's going to fuck with the SS. She'll bring in some of her amigas from Eastern Europe,extort high rents, settle on 1k per hour to get laid at the Presidential Palace.She'll be know as the first "Grand Madam Lady"...it's fucking genius.

Hi Jake, good to see ya.

I took umbrage during his campaign. Once he won, I got over it, and focused my ire on his endorsements by the alt-right Jew Haters union, and his subsequent selection of Steve Bannon as Senior WH advisor. I still take umbrage and will continue to espouse my distaste until I am proven wrong, in which case I'll man-up and acknowledge same. If however I'm proven correct, then I shall be content with Bannon's removal from power.

As for my current issue, I will continue to take umbrage with Trump ignoring proper "POTUS-elect protocols" until he is actually sworn in as President #45. At that point, I'll have no choice but to get over it, which I will. doesn't mean I'm going to like it one damned bit.

As for the blind trust issue, I'm no financial wizard but I do know the difference between soft assets and hard assets. MY position is he should have ensured all of this much much earlier, but he hasn't and shows no indication of doing anything remotely close. IMHO, it is an affront to the dignity and integrity of the nominating and election process, and I agree nothing much can be done at this point despite the flaccid flailing of the Jill Stein Recount Affair.(does anyone really believe she isn't fronting for HRC's interests at this point?). It would be encouraging to see some activity towards this end over the next two years. But considering how little Congress actually does to maintain the integrity of the process at this point, I don't hold out much hope.

As for point #2 - I did a little more research, and it turns out I am way out of line in my estimates, and so are you, Jake.

1.4 billion spent to protect the Obama First Family (2011 figure)
1.6 billion to protect the Bush First Family (2008 figure)  

So if its only going to cost us $1 million per day, then hey that's awesome!!! They can feed us cake in the meantime.
But traffic gridlock caused by the massive realignment of traffic patterns around Trump Tower, and Mid-Town Manhattan is also a major cost factor that not many have taken into account.

As for saving my energy, perhaps you're right. It's not easy fending off the newly-empowered haters from the alt-Right as well as the haters on the Hard Left who seem to be taking over the (formerly) Democratic Party in much the same way as the Tea Party infested the GOP. But that's better left for one of Doctor Gonzo's Jew-boy rants.
Not much to do but think when you're cooped up in a hospital with VERY limited access to the Net and none at all to the Dark Web. Cheers Jake. -- Modified on 11/28/2016 10:24:34 AM

I used 400 million per year extrapolating 1 million per day plus "classified" expenses.

If the rent is 3 mill per year, not 1.5 mill per month, that changes the equation by less than 5%.

But as I pointed out in my response to JakeFSF elsewhere, it turns out that $400 million would be a pittance compared to the cost of protecting the Obama's in 2011 (1.4 Billion) or the Bush family in 2008 (1.6 Billion). So I guess its ok for Trump to profit off the taxpayers since everyone else before him has done it too.  

As for fleecing the government, yeah, neither the Republicans nor Democrats have an exclusive when it comes to screwing over the general public to enrich their own coffers.

Consider me a disenfranchised political junkie

The solution is as simple as Congress standing tall and doing the right thing. The flaws in the system have been revealed and these must be addressed. Not that I expect Congress to do much of anything but enrich themselves at taxpayers expense. I mean why even bring it up? We should all sit around like good boys and girls and be tastefully silent while the carnage unfolds. Right

an estimate most likely not even from a federal source, but a NYPD "unnamed official"

Trump would only be "profiting" from the less than one percent of your figure that actually goes to rent. IOW, this is really a non issue.

Trump, Bush and even Obama are hardly "profiting" from the money's spent on protecting them. It's a necessary cost for protecting the President of our country against the many real enemies we have in this world, and that even goes for Obama.

Besides becoming disenfranchised, you really are getting sloppy. This thread is FULL is fact twisting and distortion of the facts and a LOT of it is coming from you. Making a claim of $400,000,000 a year based mainly on an unnamed local LE source is sloppy, even by the weak standards of this board.

Trump needs to avoid conflicts of interest. I quoted the law just to be clear about legal vs. ethical.  

Trump did not think he was going to win and as such made no prior effort to address his holdings. But some arrangements need to be made.

We'll see how much money Stein walks away with, but you are correct, as I stated it is all about delegitimizing Trump. They hope it gets thrown to the House. Salty proved as much in his new post above.

BTW, the cost is THREE orders of magnitude for NY NY protection. Principle stands though. Whatever the fair market value of the rental is what it is.

Doing it now would be akin to an ex-post facto law.

That quote was barely a footnote in the article and came from an "unnamed" LE source, most likely one that works for the CITY of NY, and not even anyone at the federal level.

Doc, put the fucking crack pipe down, and slow that morphine drip you must be on.  

Or are you doing to adopt the tactics of Planet Stupid and simply repeat the same bullshit source and hope no one calls you on it. The rent is THREE million a year, everything else is simply conjecture and a bunch of numbers pulled out of a local LE officials ass. Even LTM rarely lies on a scale of over a hundred to one. Notice I say "rarely" as he has been caught lying by at least two decimal points before, but that's no excuse for you to do the same.

I won't even comment on everything else you got wrong until you finally address just where you got that bullshit "a million dollar a day" crap

I linked to the article I read in TheHill... usually considered a valid political news source.
As for the numbers, I consulted snopes.com where I found the data on obama and bush,
both of whom went far beyond the 1 million per day yardstick in the years logged.

so maybe not such a stretch after all but maybe i was sloppier than usual.
not gonna blame the morphine though... if i'm wrong, i'm wrong. But i don't think i am.
Not if you take all the costs into consideration instead of just the salaries for 300 nypd.

Don't be confused GaG, I take umbrage at extravagance and exorbitant costs regardless of who is in the WH

the article in The Hill... usually considered a reliable news source that vets their info.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/307509-secret-service-in-talks-to-rent-space-in-trump-tower-report

i went to snopes.com  

http://www.snopes.com/2016/11/22/will-it-cost-taxpayers-1-million-a-day-for-trumps-family-to-stay-in-new-york/

and then back to a link to "little green footballs" where i found the data on previous potus costs.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/40980_About_That_Taxpayers_Spent_$1.4_Billion_on_Obama_Family_Last_Year_Fake_Outrage

I have no desire to intentionally mislead or deceive and I am distraught, (distraught I say!), at the notion you believe I would. Is there something amiss with TheHill, Snopes or lgf that I don't know about?
(and its morphine... i don't do crack unless its a trip to Greece)

Oops, my bad, I was thinking in terms of the incoming Congress.
The best thing THIS Congress can still do, is nothing.
And they are very good at that.

The million dollar a day number was written almost as an afterthought and was attributed only to an "unnamed LE official" most likely someone on the payroll of the NYPD and not the SS or any other federal agency. That's the problem with the number, it was simply pulled out of some nobody's ass and then bandied around as the gospel.

but now that the drugs have worn off. I will readily concede that the costs of securing Trump Plaza are only a small part of the total cost of the Trumps security, keep in mind every time he takes a trip, whether it be a diplomatic mission or simply a vacation the cost to the taxpayers is in the millions. We have NO idea what Trumps cost of security is going to be until someone adds it up sometime in the future, my guess is that it will be considerably higher than Obama, but whatever it is, it's not like he is enriching himself this way, nor did Obama before him or Bush before him.  

There were a lot of things I was/am irate at Obama over, the cost of his security is not one of them. Never did you hear a peep out of me over the multi million dollar separate vacations Barrack and Michelle took. When you are talking a budget in the trillions the millions don't seem to matter as much, not when you are talking about security to keep the POTUS safe, regardless of how much you despise said POTUS. After all, do you really want Mike Pence taking over if Trump is taken out?

The article in "The Hill" barely touched on how they were willing to give the unnamed official any credence and I found the writing rather skewed that they would write an entire article about a Three million dollar a year expense, while giving only one incomplete sentence about an expenditure over a hundred times as large as the three million they gave so many column inches to.

I hereby concede your point and offer to increase your morphine drip if you so desire. lol

If I can pull that off, I'd get years worth of freebies from her and maybe even duplas and triplas with Melania's choice stock. Gotta put my nose to the grind about that...