Land Gift For Trump Library Back On Track After Judge Lifts Block
President Donald Trump’s presidential library is set to start moving forward again after a judge dismissed the lawsuit that blocked Miami Dade College’s decision to transfer a 2.6-acre site in Downtown Miami to the state.
Judge Mavel Ruiz of Florida’s 11th Circuit Court ruled on Thursday to lift the temporary block on the land transfer and tossed the underlying public transparency case that alleged the college didn’t provide reasonable public notice before voting to donate the land.
“Although there’s been a lot of political issues associated with this case, let me make something very, very clear,” Ruiz said Thursday, the Miami Herald reported. “This is not and has never been and is not today a political decision.”
The college’s board of seven trustees voted on Sept. 23 to hand the site, which is an employee parking lot for Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus, to the state.
The prime site is worth about $67M and is adjacent to the historic Freedom Tower, a 14-story Spanish Revival building that served as a resource center for Cubans seeking asylum in the U.S. between 1962 and 1974.
Shortly after the trustee vote, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to gift the parcel to serve as the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.
But the transfer hit a judicial snag in October when political activist Marvin Dunn filed a lawsuit claiming the Miami Dade College board of trustees violated the Sunshine Act, which requires reasonable public notice of government meetings.
The meeting agenda and the public notice released a week before the meeting said the board was considering offering up a property to a state fund without specifying which property and why. The meeting was also the only one that wasn’t livestreamed this year, the Associated Press reported.
The court placed a temporary block on the land transfer, ruling the board didn't provide reasonable public notice.
The board announced it was set to vote on the property’s plans again in November, but this time with more public weigh-in. And two months after the board originally approved the transfer, it did so again unanimously.
Florida has already cleared the path for approval after the land is transferred to the state. In April, state officials ensured counties and municipalities couldn’t block or enact measures regarding presidential libraries unless authorized by federal law.
Florida’s Internal Improvement Trust Fund, made up of Republicans DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson, already approved offering the site up in September.
Trump’s team reportedly eyed Miami’s Florida International University and Boca Raton's Florida Atlantic University, which offered a 100-year lease for free.
The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation Inc., the nonprofit started by Trump’s son Eric Trump and son-in-law Michael Boulos, plans to raise $300M in 2026 and $600M in 2027 through gifts, grants and contributions, the Herald reported.
The foundation plans to spend up to five years acquiring, designing, fundraising, building and cataloging artifacts for the site, according to tax-exempt status documents reviewed by the Miami Herald. The following phase will include selecting exhibitions and expanding staffing and collections.
Other plans include a gift shop and a scholarship program for college students studying history, political science, public service or library sciences.
