One Washington Post columnist has a way of solving the traffic and commerce problems in New York City associated with Trump Tower: eminent domain.
Catherine Rampell writes that with President-elect Donald Trump currently living in his namesake building on Fifth Avenue, and the fact that his wife and young son plan to stay there at least through the current school year, something needs to be done about the issues that come with housing a president and his immediate family in the center of a major city.
Millions of dollars are being spent to keep the Trumps safe, but those protective measures are having an effect on nearby stores' sales. Traffic is snarled up and down the street.
The answer to those problems, Rampell concludes, is for the city to take possession of Trump Tower and kick the incoming first family out.
"As Trump well knows, New York has one of the most expansive eminent domain laws in the country, and has condemned property as 'blighted' for fairly flimsy reasons," she writes.
The definition of the term blighted is apparently flexible and doesn't necessarily mean a building has to be neglected in order to be seized.
"The statutory language is so elastic, you can fit almost anything into it," attorney Jeffrey Rowes of the Institute for Justice told the Post.
Rampell lists several ways New York City could seize Trump's building via eminent domain, including the use of a negative easement or declaring the building a public nuisance.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.