Secret Service command center leaves Trump Tower following lease dispute

(Image credit: Peter Kramer/Getty Images)

Unable to reach a lease agreement with the Trump Organization, the Secret Service no longer has a command post inside Trump Tower in Manhattan, instead setting up shop on the sidewalk outside, two people familiar with the discussions told The Washington Post on Thursday.

Although President Trump has not been to Trump Tower since the inauguration and his wife and youngest son moved out in June, it is considered his primary residence and there are agents there around the clock to protect it. The command post, where supervisors and backup agents are stationed in case of emergency, was one floor below Trump's apartment, high up in the tower, and security experts say it's worrisome that the unit is now on the street because radio transmissions could break up due to distance and it would take longer for agents to get upstairs. "It's a security deficiency that has to be resolved," a former Secret Service official told the Post. "It's like having the quarterback of the football game actually being located in a different stadium than where the game is being played."

The command post was moved to a trailer in early July, and people with knowledge of the discussions told the Post the two sides could not agree on price and additional conditions of the lease. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization told the Post it was "mutually determined that it would be more cost effective and logistically practical for the Secret Service to lease space elsewhere," while a Secret Service spokeswoman said that "throughout this process, there has been no impact to the security plan developed by the Secret Service."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.