New York’s Trump Tower a security problem for president’s men, by Will Plavia.

George W Bush had an easily defended ranch in Texas and the Obamas’ home in Chicago was set back from the road and screened by trees. But the next president lives in a glass tower above a public shopping mall on the busiest street in New York City.

Securing Trump Tower is raising logistic challenges and could cause mayhem in Manhattan if the president-elect continues to return there after his inauguration.

“You have a 70-storey glass-clad building sitting on one of the biggest street corners in the world,” said Richard Staropoli, who served in the security details of President Clinton and President Bush and set up a bureau for the Secret Service in New York. In that capacity, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, he visited major buildings in Manhattan that might be considered terrorist targets, including Trump Tower.

“It’s got significant problems,” he said. “What are you going to do? Will you put a blast shield around the entire building? The first 30 floors are all office space, then you have 40 storeys of very expensive residences. You don’t know who is in the surrounding buildings. You have a clear shot at it from Central Park and from any number of surrounding buildings.” …

Mr Staropoli knows Mr Trump and is friends with his elder sons. He says that Mr Trump’s work ethic is second to none; he also noted that wherever Mr Trump was, he liked to return that night to Manhattan, to his family. …

Mr Staropoli suspects that Mr Trump will abandon hopes of returning regularly to Trump Tower as the limits of his new position become clearer.

hat-tip Stephen Neil