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The History of the Waldorf Astoria and Securing the President

November 14, 2016
 Staff

WRITER

Donald Trump reportedly said that, as president, he'll spend three days a week in New York City, away from the White House. The security measures alone would be enormous.

"The cost of securing the president in New York City is astounding," Glenn said Monday on his radio program.

However, expensive measures are nothing new when it comes to securing and shielding the president of the United States.

An underground train depot --- Track 61 --- was secretly built under the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for President Franklin Roosevelt and other VIPs to move in and out of the city as discreetly as possible. Primarily a mechanism to hide FDR's disability from the public, the secret station also provided a way to quickly remove him in the event of a crisis.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these questions:

• What would be the impact on regular citizens if Trump stayed in the city three days a week?

• Why did Track 61 use a dual train system for President Roosevelt?

• Did Donald Trump once request a no-fly zone over his Mar-a-Lago property?

• Is Track 61 still in use today?

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Have you guys heard that Donald Trump has said that he's going to spend three days a week in New York away from the White House? That can't be. You can't secure the Trump Tower. How?

PAT: It's in the middle of Manhattan. I don't know how you --

GLENN: It's a big glass building in the middle of Manhattan.

PAT: Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how they do that.

GLENN: On Fifth Avenue.

PAT: First of all, it would shut down New York.

GLENN: It would shut down Fifth Avenue. At least that block of Fifth Avenue.

PAT: Look what happened every time Obama came to --

GLENN: It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare.

PAT: Oh, my gosh. It was horrific

STU: The expense -- I mean, seriously, in less than one day, he would spend all the money he's saving on his salary. And it would be like an hour of security.

GLENN: Yeah. No. It's -- to get the president in and out of New York -- first of all, underneath the Waldorf-Astoria, they still -- it's my understanding, they still have the dual train engines waiting for him.

So underneath the Waldorf-Astoria, which is where President Roosevelt selected, there is a train station. It's right -- it's right on the way to Grand Central Station. And you have two engines. Two full train engines, locomotives. And every 45 minutes one is powered down as the other one powers up.

So you have to -- so they don't overheat, you have to have two of them. Every 45 minutes, switching which one is -- which one is running. And it has to run all the time. And it is a special track just for the president. In case there's a problem, you get him to the Waldorf-Astoria. You get him down to the train tracks. And he's thrown on one of those trains, and it takes off.

And that's just one of the escape routes for the president.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: I mean, the cost of securing the president in New York City is astounding. And, you know, here's the other thing: Donald Trump has got to be loving this. When he bought Mar-a-Lago, he didn't like the fact that planes were flying over Mar-a-Lago, and so he told the airport he wanted the flight pattern changed. And they all said, "Who do you think you are?"

JEFFY: There's been an ongoing lawsuit.

GLENN: Yeah. They weren't ever go to go change it. And they were really angry at him, that he would have the balls to say that. Now, he can say, "I'm the president of the United States. You're changing the flight plan."

JEFFY: Yeah. Pretty much they have to.

PAT: Well, I think Secret Service --

GLENN: Yeah, I'm sure it's already done.

PAT: The Secret Service will do that. Yeah. So he got it done.

GLENN: Yeah, it's already done.

So now he's got his land value back.

JEFFY: This is the only reason he ran for president.

(laughter)

GLENN: Oh, man -- think of -- think of the rental property -- the rentals after he's president. Think of how much Trump Tower is worth now --

JEFFY: It doesn't matter. He said --

GLENN: It used to be the -- the New York White House during the Trump administration.

JEFFY: He said in the 60 Minute interview last night that occupancy rates doesn't matter to him. Any of that, it doesn't matter to him.

GLENN: Oh, I would move out of Trump Tower now, if he was going to live there. Because of just the hassle. Even if I was the biggest fan in the world, oh, my gosh, I'm not having my building shut down over and over and over again because of Secret Service. That's going to be a hassle for all of those people that paid a lot of money to live in Trump Tower.

PAT: Yeah.

[break]

GLENN: Just looking at the pictures of the train depot underneath Waldorf-Astoria. Apparently --

JEFFY: A lot of cobwebs?

GLENN: Apparently they don't do that anymore. Which is good news. I can't imagine what that cost.

PAT: They don't do that anymore.

GLENN: But it shows the empty train tracks and one of the cars that is still sitting there.

PAT: Well, since --

GLENN: That's a good thing. This was built for FDR for -- because he didn't want to show his disability.

PAT: And it was back in the day when the Waldorf-Astoria was somebody.

GLENN: The Waldorf-Astoria is the -- is the place that is still the place that the president goes to stay. Now, that will change with Trump Tower. But Barack Obama --

STU: Really?

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: Obama stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria?

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: Did he really?

GLENN: Yeah. Waldorf-Astoria. So did George Bush. So did Bill Clinton.

PAT: Wow. Somebody needs to introduce these guys to a nice hotel.

(laughter)

GLENN: It was the one built at the time -- oh, I'm sorry, the Waldorf is so horrible.

PAT: Come on, you know better than that. You know the Waldorf is not what it once was.

GLENN: It's a Hilton. No, it's a Hilton.

PAT: It's a Hilton hotel now.

GLENN: But the Waldorf has other sections of it. It's a very large hotel.

PAT: Yeah, that's true.

STU: I was surprised, one of our recent business trips, we went up there --

JEFFY: You didn't stay in the special section, Pat?

PAT: No.

STU: So we'll go up there and there will be like -- we usually will all like book maybe, you know, potentially in the same hotel. Or someone will book it for us. It was a last-minute trip that we had to take. So I went on Orbitz or something and just tried to book a hotel. And the Waldorf-Astoria popped up as one of the cheapest ones --

GLENN: It's huge. It's huge.

STU: Yeah. Yeah, I guess that's why.

GLENN: It's got tons of empty rooms. Because it's huge.

PAT: Did you wind up staying there, Stu? Did you wind up staying there?

STU: Yeah, I did.

PAT: Was the room extraordinary, like wow, the Waldorf-Astoria?

GLENN: Was it good?

PAT: No, it's not.

STU: It was nice.

GLENN: It's nice, but it's an old hotel --

PAT: It's okay. It's a Sheraton hotel. It's a Hilton hotel.

GLENN: It's a Hilton. Yeah.

STU: Yeah.

JEFFY: Oh, you can't stand it. Hilton.

GLENN: Like you can't have the president stay at a Hilton.

PAT: Well, you can't. I mean, they don't. Let's be real about it.

GLENN: Yes, you can -- we should.

JEFFY: Thank you.

PAT: We don't.

GLENN: We should.

Featured Image: The Waldorf Astoria, 1899, Library of of Congress (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Congressman: We have EVIDENCE that White House initiated 'excuse' for FBI crackdown on anti-CRT parents

A shocking new report by The Daily Wire reveals that the furious father whose arrest at a school board meeting likely sparked the call for the FBI to investigate anti-CRT parents like domestic terrorists was furious for good reasons: The Loudoun County School Board allegedly tried to cover up his daughter's rape.

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) joined Glenn Beck on the radio program Tuesday to discuss the incident and explain why he joined 60 lawmakers in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding answers for why the FBI is targeting parents.

"We want to know ... what kind of coordination took place between the White House, activist groups and teachers unions, and the Department of Justice," Stewart told Glenn. "Because we have evidence that there was [coordination] and, in fact, that the White House are the ones who initiated this. They asked for these activist groups to write this inflammatory letter to the Department of Justice saying they were 'intimidated' and that they 'felt threatened', giving the Department of Justice Attorney General Garland, the excuse to say, 'Okay, well, we have to respond'."

Stewart went on to say he believes the federal government would only involve the FBI in such an issue if its purpose is to silence and intimidate parents concerned about the "poison" being taught to their kids in school. So, what can he and the other representatives who disagree with the Biden administration's overreach of power do to stop it?

Watch the video clip below to hear Stewart explain:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Glenn Beck: Taiwan is preparing for potential WAR with China — but will Biden do ANYTHING?

Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu is now warning that his nation is preparing for war with China after Beijing flew a record number of warplanes over Taiwanese territory. Wu reached out to another country for help, but it wasn't the United States.

In a video, Wu urged Australia to help prepare for a possible invasion, but gave the U.S. no mention.

"The defense of Taiwan is in our own hands, and we are absolutely committed to that. And if China is going to launch a war against Taiwan, we will fight until the end. And that is our commitment. And, of course, during this period of time, we would like to exchange with other countries for security cooperation," Wu said on ABC News In-depth's China Tonight program. "We would like to engage in security or intelligence exchanges with other like-minded partners, Australia included, so that Taiwan is better prepared to deal with the war situation. And so far, our relations with Australia is very good. And that is what we appreciate it for."

On "The Glenn Beck Program," Glenn, Pat Gray, and Stu Burguiere discussed whether or not America would do anything during such a conflict — because it sure seems like President Joe Biden is more focused on working with China to fight climate change. Plus, why did China just cut off all cryptocurrency?

Watch the video clip below to catch the conversation:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

'HARMFUL CONTENT': How King Biden Is KILLING the Constitution

On "Glenn TV" tonight, Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to reveal how the fundamental transformation of America has already begun by turning the Declaration of Independence upside down.

If Donald Trump was a dictator, then what do we call President Biden? In Biden's first nine months in office, he has already issued 64 executive orders – that's more than Trump, Obama, W. Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Reagan each issued in their entire first years in office.

You never hear the Left talk about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights any more, unless it's to "reimagine" the Constitution or slap a "harmful content" warning on our founding documents. Seriously. The National Archives said while its website label wasn't targeting the Constitution specifically, "some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions." The Left finds basic, guaranteed rights so offensive they now spend all of their time on workarounds to deal with America's annoying founding documents.

Watch the full episode of "Glenn TV" below to see Glenn outline the aggressive unconstitutional abuses "King Biden" is jamming down our throats and teaches Americans how we can defend against presidential tyranny.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Glenn Beck: Electricity shortages in China mean empty shelves ARE coming. Here's how to PREPARE

On the "Glenn Beck Radio Program," Glenn explained why he wouldn't be surprised to see our supply chain collapse and empty shelves in America in the near future. Shortages are already wrecking our economy, China (where many of our goods are still made) is facing an energy shortage, and the Biden administration sure seems to be doing everything it can to make things worse.

Glenn noted a serious warning from American CEO Mike Beckham: "There's a major storm brewing in the supply chain," Beckham wrote on Twitter.

Thanks to China's centrally planned system, electricity shortages are causing huge delays in product manufacturing. In fact, some items are facing a 33 percent cut in production. "It could dramatically impact every [American's] life next year. But almost no one knows about it yet," Beckham warned.

Glenn went on to explain exactly what this means for you — and what you can do to prepare.

Watch the video clip below to hear Glenn break it down:


Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.