For nearly five years, since Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, the sidewalks and streets around Trump Tower have been blanketed in a maze of NYPD barricades and security theater. On Wednesday, the police department removed the last of the barricades around 56th and 5th Avenue, and New Yorkers are now free to walk past the former president's fortress unimpeded.
"In partnership with the United States Secret Service the decision was made to remove the barriers around Trump Tower," NYPD Sergeant Edward Riley wrote in an email to Gothamist. "The NYPD does not discuss security measures."
The barricades in front of Trump Tower on February 3, 2021.
Trump Tower on Wednesday.
A doorman outside Trump Tower said that the barricades, and the concrete barriers impeding a lane of traffic on 56th Street, came down this morning.
"It's nice having people be able to walk by again," they told a photographer.
While people flowed freely in and out of the lobby, which is supposed to be open to the public 24/7, it was unclear if the garden terraces on the fourth and fifth floors were open as well. A message left with the Trump Organization has not yet been returned.
People painting Black Lives Matter in front of Trump Tower on June 9th, 2020
New York City recently estimated that security around Trump Tower has cost $150 million, according to Patch. Trump's visits, which cost city agencies around $300,000 every day (reimbursed annually by the federal government), have been more sporadic since the former president announced that he was changing his residency to Florida in the fall of 2019. This past August, Trump visited his brother Robert at New York-Presbyterian Hospital shortly before his death.
On January 20th, Trump left the White House for Mar-a-Lago for an indefinite period of time. The Palm Beach Town Council recently indicated that the former president may have to register as an "employee" of the resort in order to reside there.
Additional reporting by C.S. Muncy.
