Miami residents sue Trump, DeSantis over land donation for presidential library
Miami residents sued President Donald Trump, Miami Dade College and Florida state officials on Wednesday, alleging that the decision to donate an iconic stretch of downtown Miami property for Trump’s future presidential library — which might also house a hotel — is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit argues that the president, his presidential library foundation and state officials — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — violated the Domestic Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from giving a financial benefit to a sitting president.
The White House didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on Wednesday night.
“Miami Dade College should be getting something back. The state of Florida got $10 for that land, which could be worth close to $300 million, yeah, that’s a ripoff,” said Dr. Marvin Dunn, a retired Florida International University professor who filed the first lawsuit.
Dunn’s nonprofit organization is one of the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, alleging the Trump project violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause.
“The lawsuit absolutely has a chance in court, we’re very confident about it,” said lead attorney Gerald Greenberg.
In the nation’s 250-year history, the emoluments clause has rarely been invoked, but Greenberg says this situation is a classic example of why the founders included it.
“They were just coming out of their experience with the British monarchy, and they wanted to make sure that this country was not ruled by a king or anybody who could force a tribute from his subjects,” Greenberg said. “And the language of it is crystal clear, the president is limited to set, enumerated compensation and is not allowed to get gifts from foreign powers or in the context we’re in, from U.S. states, that’s clearly what’s going on here.”
DeSantis moved last September to transfer a 2.63-acre (1.06-hectare) parcel of land to Trump’s presidential library foundation. Since then, the president and his son Eric Trump shared extravagant plans for a skyscraper to house the library. An artificial intelligence video unveiled in March includes panning shots of the tower’s exterior and interior, with a presidential jet parked in the lobby alongside a gold escalator like the one Trump rode while launching his presidential campaign in 2015. Other shots show a giant ballroom like the one he’s planning for the White House, a replica Oval Office, rooftop gardens and a large, gold statue of Trump.
The president also suggested that there could be for-profit entities in the building.
“This concept could be an office, but it’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath,” Trump said to reporters in March.
The complaint argued that means the land “is no longer available to serve MDC’s student community and Downtown Miami. Instead, the land will house a Trump hotel that brings riches to the President.”
The property that was donated to Trump’s foundation is owned by Miami Dade College and sits next to the Freedom Tower, a historic building that rises alongside the glitzy condos facing palm tree-lined Biscayne Bay. The Spanish Revival skyscraper once housed one of the city’s first newspapers, but later served as a resource center for hundreds of thousands of Cubans seeking asylum in the United States, according to Miami Dade College, which now operates the site as a museum.
The site is valued at roughly $67 million, according to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. Other real estate experts, including appraisers cited in the lawsuit, have wagered that the parcel could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.
Lawyers with the Constitutional Accountability Center in Washington, D.C., and Miami-based law firm Gelber Schachter & Greenberg filed the lawsuit on behalf of a student at Miami Dade College, two people who live near the donated parcel of land and a local nonprofit organization that had hoped to use the parcel as the site of an urban farm.
