Secret Service Now Stuck in Trailer Outside Trump Tower

The agency tasked with protecting President Trump and his family has had to leave a command post amid a lease dispute with the Trump Organization. The Secret Service vacated its command post in Trump Tower, in a unit one floor below the president's apartment, to a trailer on the sidewalk in early July after it couldn't agree on rental terms for the space, the Washington Post reports. "After much consideration, it was mutually determined that it would be more cost effective and logistically practical for the Secret Service to lease space elsewhere," a Trump Organization spokeswoman says. Sources tell the Post that price was a major sticking point in the negotiations.

The Secret Service still treats the tower as Trump's residence, though he hasn't returned since the inauguration, and there are concerns that shifting the command post could create communication difficulties with agents inside the tower. A Secret Service spokeswoman tells NPR that the new setup isn't ideal, but the security plan remains unchanged. "This idea of us having a command post that is not co-located with one of our protectee's residences, that's not something new for us," she says. "We've had to do this with past presidents." Melania and Barron Trump moved to the White House in June. (More Secret Service stories.)