Trump Va. Home’s Security Cameras Monitored From NYC, Report Says

Former Trump employees dish to BuzzFeed about the Republican presidential nominee’s heavily surveilled residence in Virginia and nearby Trump National Golf Club.

WASHINGTON – The suburban residence owned by Donald Trump on Water Mark Place in Sterling, Va., is outfitted with an extensive and closely-monitored video surveillance system, according to a report by BuzzFeed.

Three former Trump employees familiar with the house told BuzzFeed the interior is monitored by multiple security cameras and that the video is watched remotely by Trump’s security team 250 miles away in New York City.

Trump’s adjacent golf club, the Trump National Golf Club, also has an extensive deployment of video surveillance cameras, the former employees said. The security systems at the golf club include license plate recognition to record who comes and goes from the club, sources told BuzzFeed.

The extent of the video surveillance is far beyond what is routine for a golf club, said three former employees, all of whom are familiar with the industry. Two of them said that the cameras were monitored intently, almost invasively, BuzzFeed reported. Workers, they said, would occasionally get called by security in New York if they were in an unexpected place.


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BuzzFeed previously reported that in his bedroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump had a switchboard that allowed him to eavesdrop on any landline there, according to people who worked at the estate. Unlike at Mar-a-Lago, there is no allegation of phone eavesdropping capabilities at Trump’s golf operations near the nation’s capital.

As a candidate, Trump has called for surveillance of mosques and has supported reauthorizing the Patriot Act, including the NSA’s bulk collection of data on telephone calls, emails, and other digital communication. “I tend to err on the side of security,” he told radio host Hugh Hewitt in June.

Asked about surveillance at Trump’s Virginia home and adjacent golf club, a Trump Organization spokesperson told BuzzFeed in an emailed statement, “We do not comment on the specific security procedures that are put in place at our properties. That said, there are numerous inaccuracies outlined in your ‘findings’ and your allegations of surveillance are simply untrue.”

BuzzFeed said its story is based mainly on five sources: four former employees of the golf resort, and one person close to the campaign. All but one said they plan to vote for Trump. The former employees spoke on condition of anonymity because, like virtually all Trump employees, they had signed sweeping nondisclosure agreements. The person close to the campaign said he isn’t authorized to speak to the press. Politicians believed Trump’s home was “a safe place to go.”

According to BuzzFeed, American Integrated Security Group (AISG) is a major surveillance equipment contractor for the Trump Organization. The College Point, N.Y.-based systems integrator “has touted its work on a separate Trump golf course, the Trump National Doral course in Florida. In a four-page case study it posted online, AISG writes that it dealt with both Matt Calamari Sr. and Jr.,” BuzzFeed reported.

The AISG case study describes 360-degree “low profile cameras that look like smoke detectors” and an Internet server system for storing and monitoring video. The integrator says the “first phase” of its contract involved installing more than 100 cameras, and it continued later with even more video surveillance.

The case study quotes Trump officials praising the cameras for allowing high-quality zooms on people’s faces, and for license plate recognition.

You can read the full BuzzFeed story here.

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About the Author

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Although Bosch’s name is quite familiar to those in the security industry, his previous experience has been in daily newspaper journalism. Prior to joining SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION in 2006, he spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Times, where he performed a wide assortment of editorial responsibilities, including feature and metro department assignments as well as content producing for latimes.com. Bosch is a graduate of California State University, Fresno with a degree in Mass Communication & Journalism. In 2007, he successfully completed the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association’s National Training School coursework to become a Certified Level I Alarm Technician.

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