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  • 2017-02-02 (xsd:date)
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  • Does Melania Trump's NYC Security Cost Twice the NEA's Budget? (en)
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  • On 31 January 2017, author and BOMB magazine marketing director Ryan Chapman asserted on Twitter that the cost of providing security for First Lady Melania Trump while she lived in New York City would be double the annual budget for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). Chapman's statement came less than a month after reports that Melania's husband, President Donald Trump, planned to eliminate federal funding for both the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities. When asked for sources, Chapman cited a New York Times article estimating the NEA's annual funding at around $148 million. (The NEA's website states their 2016 funding as $147,949,000.) Chapman also cited an estimate first reported by CNN that providing security for the entire Trump family was costing New York City more than $1 million a day: When asked about that figure on 7 December 2016, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called it premature, adding that the city had asked the federal government for $35 million in reimbursement for protecting Melania Trump between 8 November 2016 and her husband's inauguration on 20 January 2017. As the Times reported, the request was based on a daily security cost of $500,000. The city has reportedly been reimbursed for $7 million. However, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill lowered that estimate in a 21 February 2017 letter to the state congressional delegation, saying that it cost $24 million to protect the First Family between the election and the inauguration, or $11 million less than de Blasio's request. The letter also included estimates for security costs for both the First Lady and the President: Based on the figures O'Neill included in his letter, it would cost between $46,355,000 and $53,290,000 a year to provide security for Melania and Barron Trump alone at Trump Tower, substantially lower than Chapman's prediction. Also, if the president were to spend every weekend in New York beginning in March 2017, it would cost $27,104,000 to provide security during those 88 days, which would also be less than the NEA's annual budget. However, if President Trump's proposed budget were accepted as submitted, the NEA's annual budget would be effectively zero (unless it secured funding from private sources). (en)
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