First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron are currently living in the three-story penthouse at Trump Tower in New York. The budget requests include the costs of safeguarding that property as well as the White House. The costs of “equipment and infrastructure to secure Trump Tower” during the 2017 fiscal year remain undisclosed.
Additionally, the New York Police Department spent roughly $24 million to protect Trump Tower between the election and the inauguration, and are now spending between $127,000 and $145,000 a day to protect the First Lady and Barron while the president is out of town. When Trump is in NYC, that number jumps to $300,000. The city is currently seeking federal reimbursement for the costs.
Melania and Barron are said to be moving to the White House at the end of the school year.
"Mrs. Trump will be moving to DC and settling in to the White House at the end of the school year, splitting her time between New York and DC in the meantime," Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, senior adviser to the first lady, said in a statement. "Mrs. Trump is honored to serve this country and is taking the role and responsibilities of first lady very seriously. It has only been a short time since the inauguration and the first lady is going to go about her role in a pragmatic and thoughtful way that is unique and authentic to her."
Trump has also been traveling to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on weekends, referring to it as the “Winter White House.” While repeatedly mentioned in the report from the Post, they noted that the resort is not specifically named in the documents.
“The Secret Service cannot dictate the lifestyle of the protectee. They have to work around it,” Jonathan Wackrow, who spent 14 years on the Secret Service and is now executive director of the risk-mitigation company RANE, told the Post. “I don’t think they expected him to go to Florida so often. This was an unanticipated reality,” he added, for which the Secret Service “had to quickly readjust operations.”
