Chuck Schumer: NYC should stop footing the bill for Trump Tower security

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — the highest ranked, and thus de facto leader of Democrats in Congress — urged his home state to stop paying for President Donald Trump's permanent security detail at Manhattan's Trump Tower in a recent interview with BuzzFeed News.

Schumer told the site New York City's 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. That's what I think he should do."

Visitors to Trump Tower will find that the complex is usually swarming with NYPD officers, including checkpoints on side roads and a tactical team with body armor and rifles deployed outside the building's main entrance. The Secret Service also provides guards, who patrol the area and screen visitors at the interior metal detectors.

The permanent security posting at the building costs NYC approximately $127,000-$146,000 a day, the New York Times reported, with additional estimates of $308,000 a day if the president visits NYC. That's $50 to $60 million a year — meaning the full cost to the city could run up to a quarter of a billion dollars over the four-year course of a presidential term. According to the Times, the Trump administration has only reimbursed a small portion of the cost.

Trump Tower has regularly been the site of protests and demonstrations against Trump's campaign and presidency, requiring large numbers of NYPD officers to provide security.

During the interview, Schumer also criticized Trump as flighty and unable to meet the challenges of the presidency.

"When I talk to him, I try to talk to him about serious issues and he just changes the subject," Schumer said. "I told him we want to work with him where we can work with him, we want to work with him on a big infrastructure bill — America needs to rebuild its infrastructure, haven't gotten anywhere with him. I told him on North Korea, the way to deal with North Korea is to get China to be much tougher and to get China to be tougher is for us to be tougher with China on trade. Nothing."

"He listens to what I have to say on the important subject of the day and then he talks about what he wants to talk about," the senator added.