Just like that, in a matter of a week, the state of Florida publicly proposed and approved giving away taxpayer-owned land in downtown Miami — worth $67 million — to Donald Trump’s presidential library foundation.
It happened with few questions asked, few restrictions, and little or no public input on a topic that’s certain to drive passionate debate in South Florida.
Soon after Tuesday’s unanimous vote by the Republican-controlled Florida Cabinet — comprised of the governor, chief financial officer, attorney general and agriculture commissioner — Trump’s son committed to building the presidential library in Miami.
“It will be the greatest Presidential Library ever built, honoring the greatest President our Nation has ever known,” son Eric Trump, one of three trustees of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, wrote on X.
A week ago, the Miami-Dade College Board of Trustees, in a lightning-fast meeting with little public notice, voted to transfer the land from the college to the state. There was no information about what the land would be used for, according to the Board of Trustees vice chairman and records provided by the college that show no details were sent to board members, the Miami Herald reported.
Once a lucrative site
The property had once been considered for commercial development, but previous deals fell through because the college demanded benefits, such as classroom space. It’s unclear what the college gets in return for the library, because no records related to that have been released, the Herald reported.
The Trump team is also considering building a high-rise hotel on the property, sources told the Herald. Even for Miami, a city used to questionable public-land deals, this one stands out for its unfairness to the taxpayers, who own this piece of prime downtown real estate.
The Herald reported that the only restriction imposed by the state on the property transfer is that “within five years of the date of conveyance, the subject property contains components of a Presidential library, museum, and/or center or that construction has commenced.”
Is this the best our state leaders — who wave the flag of fiscal responsibility while sending the Florida DOGE hunting for questionable spending by local government — could deliver?
This was a done deal from the start. Taxpayers were mere spectators.
Oh, the irony
The irony that a library celebrating America’s most anti-immigrant president in recent history will sit next to the Freedom Tower, a symbol of Miami’s immigrant roots, should not be forgotten.
The tower also once housed the Miami Daily News, a reminder of the freedom of the press that Trump has threatened with vows to go after news organizations he believes are too critical of him.
Certainly, many Miamians, including immigrants and their descendants, will celebrate a Trump presidential library. Trump won Miami-Dade last year, the first Republican presidential candidate to do so since the 1980s, thanks in no small part to the Hispanic vote.
A presidential library can bring many benefits to a city, with increased tourism and visibility that translates into hotel stays and more money in the local economy.
Gov. Ron DeSantis also said the library will be a benefit to Miami-Dade College students.
“To have Miami-Dade College students have opportunities to be able to have programs associated with a Trump presidential library, I think it’s a unique opportunity for the state,” DeSantis said.
Don’t glorify him
We don’t necessarily disagree.
But for that to happen, Trump’s library should give an honest account of his presidency — including his impeachments and Jan. 6 — not just the glorified highlights the president and his supporters want Americans to remember.
We highly doubt that will happen. This is the same Trump who has tried to recast the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol invasion as a patriotic field trip and whose administration is trying to rewrite American history by, for example, ordering the removal from national parks of exhibits and materials related to the history of slavery.
This is not the first time a presidential library has taken over public property. President Obama’s library is being built in a public park in Chicago and drew opposition over the use of park land, the removal of trees and fear that residents will be priced out of the area.
Regardless of how you feel about Trump, the process matters. Miami and Florida should not be so enamored with the idea of having a presidential library that we ignore the lack of transparency and public input that preceded the transfer of this land.
Taxpayers, who own this land, should have been central to this process, not shunted to the sidelines. How this took place only reflects Trump’s own haphazard approach to governing, where due process doesn’t matter and his whims become policy.
Florida is Trump country — and now we’ll have a presidential library to prove it.
This editorial was originally published in the Miami Herald. The Sun Sentinel on occasion republishes editorials that reflect our point of view. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
