BUZZ
Case cites ban on ‘sitting presidents … receiving financial benefits from state governments’
A Miami Dade College student and a retired professor’s nonprofit filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging Florida leaders’ gift of a former campus property to Donald Trump for his presidential library.
The college’s Board of Trustees, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and President Trump are among those named in the lawsuit. It alleges the land transfer violates a U.S. Constitution prohibition on “sitting presidents … receiving financial benefits from state governments,” The Hill reports.
The property is worth approximately $67 million, according to the lawsuit.
The nonprofit Dunn’s Farm, one of the plaintiffs, believes the land would be better used as an urban farm for the city, according to Politico.
Its co-founder, Marvin Dunn, is a historian and retired professor of Florida International University. He previously sued the college for alleged transparency problems when it first voted on the land transfer. That case later was dismissed.
The student involved in the new lawsuit, Carmen Salcedo, is mentored by Dunn and “has an interest in her state-operated college making decisions that benefit her and her education, rather than decisions that line the pockets of President Trump at the expense of students,” according to the lawsuit.
It alleges that Trump’s “statements, individually and collectively, make clear that President Trump intends to monetize this [land], generating significant profit for himself and his family.”
It mentions a statement that Trump made recently about the site potentially including a hotel as well as the library, “with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that early design proposals for the land show “‘TRUMP’ lettering” that is “identical to The Trump Organization’s logo and the signage used on Trump hotel properties across the world …”
The plaintiffs want “a court order to void the land transfer and revert ownership to the state to restore its use for ‘MDC students, Dunn’s Farm, and the Downtown Miami community,’” according to The Hill.
In December, the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees voted to approve transferring the plot of land to the state, which then transferred it to Trump’s library foundation. The college was using the property in downtown Miami as an employee parking lot, The College Fix reported at the time.
When asked about the lawsuit, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Politico that Trump is “a leader who has fought tirelessly to deliver for the forgotten men and women of this country and Make America Great Again.”
“The Trump Presidential Library will be one of the most magnificent buildings in the world, and a living testament to the indelible impact President Trump has made on America and its people,” Ingle said.
Currently, the U.S. has 16 presidential libraries overseen by the National Archives. A few others operate independently.
Several are housed at universities. The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library is located at Mississippi State University. Lyndon Johnson’s is on the University of Texas at Austin campus, and Gerald Ford’s library is at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
MORE: Miami college approves land deal for Trump library after transparency lawsuit
