Excerpt
SUMMARY: When Donald Trump moves into the White House, Trump Tower will still be a home of the first family. Securing the skyscraper presents unprecedented challenges, not to mention traffic gridlock, a hardship on nearby businesses and a fight over who should be paying the sky-high costs. The NewsHour's Rhana Natour reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): With just a couple days left until the inauguration, much of the nation's attention is on President-elect Trump's move into the White House.
But Midtown Manhattan residents are still focusing on the gold skyscraper of Trump Tower, which will continue to be a home for the Trump family.
Producer Rhana Natour looks at the unprecedented challenges of securing that residence and the financial fallout.
RHANA NATOUR, Producer: This is the new reality along the storied Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, dogs, chains, and intense security.
The President-elect has used Trump Tower as a base for transition meetings since the election, and while he will relocate to the White House after the inaugural, his wife, Melania, and 10-year-old son Barron plan to stay in Trump Tower through the end of the school year.
Evy Poumpouras is a former Secret Service agent. For 12 years, she was part of the presidential detail for Presidents Obama, Clinton and both Bushes.
We are seeing delivery truck after delivery truck being searched in and out. What is happening here?
EVY POUMPOURAS, Former Secret Service Agent: So, we want to control what's coming into the area of Trump Tower.
And one of the biggest issues are large vehicles that can actually have large amounts of an explosive. And a truck would be a perfect thing, a perfect IED, a vehicle device, to use.
So, what they will do is, you will typically have the vehicle stopped. They will search the vehicle, make sure there's nothing inside the vehicle, underneath the vehicle, make sure it's clean.
RHANA NATOUR: Trump Tower stretches 57 stories, with 26 floors of offices, three retail stores and hundreds of tenants. It is also surrounded by other skyscrapers, compounding the security challenge.
EVY POUMPOURAS: Right now, planes aren't allowed to fly over Trump Tower, same thing that happens over at the White House. But then you have that variable. He's up top. He's high on the floor. Planes are a concern.
RHANA NATOUR: And, as technology evolves, there are ever greater risks.
EVY POUMPOURAS: Drones. Can somebody use a drone, not just to go up there and, you know what, I want to see the future president? You can actually strap explosives, weapons to those drones, fly them up, and then cause harm in that way.
And then also even cyber-security, radiation, contamination in the air, chemical — any type of chemical airborne attack, that's also an issue. The tower itself, one of the things we look at is what we call the H-VAC system, which is where the air intake system is. That's super dangerous as well.
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