Miamians Sue Trump Over Plan To Include Hotel With Presidential Library
President Donald Trump's presidential library is facing a legal challenge from neighbors who claim the planned tower violates the U.S. Constitution's clause preventing federal officials from receiving gifts from foreign or state governments.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gifted a 2.6-acre site in Downtown Miami to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation last year after Miami Dade College's governing board voted to transfer it to the state of Florida.
This week, Miami residents, a Miami Dade College student and an urban farm owner filed suit to block construction on the site, arguing that the project violates the emoluments clause in the Constitution. The lawsuit, first reported by Politico, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The land was last appraised at a $67M value. It sits on prime Miami real estate near Kaseya Center and next to the historic 14-story Freedom Tower, which was a resource center for Cubans seeking asylum in the U.S. between 1962 and 1974.
The site has served as a parking lot for the college, but Trump's foundation, led by son and The Trump Organization Executive Eric Trump, plans to erect a roughly 47-story library tower as a nod to Trump's position as the 47th president.
The Trumps released renderings in March on social media of the glassy tower, sporting a red, white and blue spire and the same Trump logo that adorns the hotels and apartments the president built during his long career as a developer.
Trump said in the Oval Office in March the tower would be “most likely a hotel, you know? This concept could be office, but it’s most likely gonna be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby,” The Hill reported at the time.
He received the jet as a gift from the government of Qatar, which drew loud rebukes from ethics experts who said it could present a conflict of interest.
The suit names Trump, his library foundation, DeSantis, members of the Florida cabinet and Miami Dade College as defendants and claims that the president's plans to monetize the skyscraper are beyond his "fixed salary," violating the Constitution's emoluments clause.
The parcel isn't directly owned by the president but by the Trump Library Foundation, which is owned and operated by Michael Boulos, Trump's son-in-law, and Eric Trump, whom the suit claims Trump "exercises control over."
"A president can't get around this constitutional bar by doing things through some sort of entity or saying it's technically through a family member. Period," said Jerry Greenberg, a partner at Gelber Schachter & Greenberg and an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case.
"They can't get around it by doing that. The emoluments clause is broad enough that it precludes game-playing like that."
The plaintiffs allege that Trump has already been enriched from the state's gift, even though the project has not yet come to fruition, because the land was acquired for free and the nonprofit structure provides tax exemptions.
It also mentioned a measure the state enacted last year to ensure counties and municipalities couldn’t block presidential libraries unless authorized by federal law.
The two city residents who live near the lot and joined the lawsuit claim a high-rise would compromise views and "worsen the living conditions of their neighborhood."
Other plaintiffs include a Miami Dade College student in urban farming and nonprofit management and the nonprofit Dunn's Overtown Farm, operated by Marvin Dunn, that hoped to use the land for an urban farm.
"It's not about people's feelings about this president, it's not that people don't want a library," Greenberg said. "It really is that it's illegal and inappropriate to use this gift of land for private gain, which is what the president has made very clear he intends to do."
This isn't the first legal hurdle that Dunn, a political activist and emeritus Florida International University professor, has thrown in front of the library.
The original land transfer was paused in October last year when Dunn sued Miami Dade College's board of trustees, claiming it didn't provide enough notice of a government meeting to the public. A judge ruled in his favor.
The board then set a new date to vote in November, with more public discourse, but unanimously voted in December to hand over the site.
Trump also faced lawsuits over the emoluments clause during his first term over his ownership of the Old Post Office hotel. He sold it for $375M to CGI Merchant, which lost it to foreclosure two years later.
"Somebody asked me the other day if I thought that this is what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they wrote the emoluments clause," Greenberg said. "I said, 'Absolutely. I don't think they envisioned a parking lot in Miami across from a basketball stadium, but they did envision and fear corruption from the chief executive.'"
