Trump Properties Face Global Terror Risk With Presidency

Businesses around the world bearing U.S. President 
Donald Trump's name face an increased risk now that 
he is in the White House, security experts warn, especially 
as several are in areas previously targeted by violence.

As Trump remains a brand overseas, criminal gangs 
or militants could target buildings bearing his name in 
gold, abduct workers associated with his enterprises 
for ransom or worse, they say.

"They may kidnap a Trump worker and not even want to
negotiate," aiming for publicity instead, said Colin P. Clarke, 
a political scientist with the RAND Corporation who 
studies terrorism and international criminal networks.

Predicting an attack keeps police, intelligence agencies 
and security experts awake at night around the world — 
and, by its very nature, it remains speculative.

U.S. brands have been targeted in overseas violence
 before, but they never belonged to a president. That's 
the difference.

Trump becoming America's 45th president presents a 
uniquely challenge given the range of his international business interests.

Asked about security issues, the Trump Organization
 said in a statement it has "extensive protocols in place 
at our Trump- owned and -managed properties" in the 
United States and abroad.

"Our team continues to work very closely with local
 law enforcement," the statement said. "We are also 
working  in tandem with the local developers at Trump-branded properties

worldwide to ensure that all residents, guests and 
associatesremain safe and secure." The organization 
did not elaborate.

While Trump has said he will put his business assets in 
a trust and hand over management control of his company
 to his two adult sons and a longtime Trump Organization executive, it's still his name on the projects.

That hasn't worried Kim Ok Kyu, who lives in a Trump
-brands apartment tower in Seoul, South Korea. 

She said security at her building is quite good, with 
many guards and strict restrict ins on outsiders  
entering the building "Terror? I don't think about it. 
I just hope my home prices go up," Kim said.

But other properties are in areas that have seen violence,
 like Trump Towers Istanbul, the Turkish city hit hard 
by a string of bomb and gun attacks carried out by the
 Islamic State group.

Flags and banners around the site bear the president's
 name, while private security guards man X-ray
 machines and metal detectors at its entrances,
 a standard practice in the city.

In Bali, where bombs planted by the Islamic extremist
 group Jemaah Islamiyah targeting bar-goers killed 
202 people in 2002, Trump's organization has licensed
 the president's name to a planned luxury resort. 

Bali police spokesman Hungary Widjaja said no one
 had requested extra security for the property and 
authorities had no plans to increase their presence there.

A Trump-named residential tower is under construction
 in the Indian city of Mumbai, which was hit by a 2008 
terror attack blamed on the Pakistani militant group 
Lashkar-e-Taiba that killed 166 people. Mumbai police spokesman Ashok Duke said he had no knowledge 
of any additional security around the tower.

Another tower is being built in Manila in the Philippines, 
a nation where Abu Sayyaf militants conduct frequent kidnappings for ransom and where President Rodrigo 
Duterte wages a burial crackdown on drug dealers
 that has killed thousands. Philippine police say they 
haven't monitored any specific threat towards Trump properties, though a tower rising in Manila sits in an area under an intensified security watch after Duterte declared 
a "state of lawlessness" following a September bombing.

Even Trump's soon-to-open golf course in Dubai in the 
United Arab Emirates could be a target, despite the
 fact the Gulf Arab nation has largely escaped the 
violence gripping its Madras neighbors. In the UAE's
 capital of Abu Dhabi, an American school teacher was stabbed to death in a mall bathroom by an extremist in December 2014. Authorities also have impressed 
others over disrupted terror plots in the country, 
which host some 5,000 members of the U.S. military.

Dubai police have declined to discuss safety on the
 golf course while the developer says it plans no 
additional security there.

The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi did not respond to
 questions about the golf course, which Trump's
 children are expected to soon visit.

All of the Trump properties should be looked at by 
outside security consultants, said Christopher A.
 Hagon, a manager partner of The Incident 
Management Group and a former London police 
officer with experience in diplomatic security.

However, he acknowledged such commercial properties 
can't be surrounded by concrete blast walls and controlled
 like a U.S. Embassy.

"There is no complete answer to these things unless 
you've got a military encampment and you can do 
anything you like," Hagon said. "You've got to make compromises, but hope those compromises won't 
weaken the overall approach."

Away from the properties themselves, employees could 
be threatened, robbed or held captive, experts warn.
 Under U.S. law, the Secret Service is authorized to protect
 the president, the vice president and their immediate families. 

That would include his sons Eric and Donald Jr., who will
 run the Trump Organization under the plan announced
 by the president at a news conference last week.

Already, the Secret Service and the New York police have
provided security in and around Trump Tower in 
Manhattan as the president lives and works there.

When asked about the Trump Organization, Secret Service spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said the 
agency does "not comment on our protective 
operations." 

However, that Secret Service protection extends  anywhere the president and his immediate  family travels.

The U.S. intelligence community already has a duty to
 warn American citizens and others if it uncovers
 information about impending threats, which would 
include Trump's businesses.

In 2015, National Intelligence Director James Clapper
 set formal guidelines for how the intelligence community does that if it learns of impending threats of killing, 
serious bodily harm or kidnapping.

"This includes threats where the target is an institution,
 place of business, structure or location," according to Clapper's directive.

Those threats become more serious if Trump's work intersection with his duties in the Oval Office and a
 militant group decides to "mock, torment or tease
" him with a kidnapped employee, Clarke said.

He added: "If an executive from Goldman Sachs or 
JP Morgan or Exxon Mobil gets kidnapped, it's news,
 but it's not the president's company."