Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ push to establish the future Donald Trump Presidential Library in his state crossed a major milestone Tuesday, angering some Miami residents due in part to the proposed site’s proximity to a Latin American immigration monument. At the Torre de la Libertad, or Freedom Tower, a generation of Cuban refugees first entered the United States after fleeing the Castro regime. In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, DeSantis and an executive state committee approved the transfer of 2.6 acres of prime downtown real estate appraised at more than $66 million from owners Miami Dade College to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, a family-run group spearheading the president’s future archives.
Hailed by DeSantis as being “good for Florida, for the city and for Miami Dade College,” the land transfer has become the latest Florida flashpoint generated by the state’s most high-profile resident. The governor’s anti-immigration politics seemingly stand in stark contrast to the legacy represented by the Freedom Tower.
Why is the Trump library plan so controversial?
The land transfer and plans for a future presidential library drew “immediate backlash” from critics who argued that the college parcel was “intended to serve educational purposes,” said CBS News. A presidential library “does not belong in a place and space” that is “taking away from Miami Dade College’s students,” said one protester to the network during a Monday demonstration at the site in question. Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill designed to prevent local communities from blocking any presidential library construction in an effort to “overrule potential opposition in liberal-leaning counties or municipalities,” said WFTV.
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While the plot of land was appraised at approximately $66 million for this transfer, that sum is “just a fraction of its likely market value,” The New York Times said. There’s “all kinds of ways that thing would just be a cash cow,” real estate consultant Peter Zalewski said to the outlet.
Backers of the project have argued that the presidential library will “boost Miami’s profile as a cultural and political hub” while “generating opportunities” for the local college community, said Fox13. “It’s not about political values or ideologies,” said MDC board member Roberto Alonso, whose parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1960s, to CBS. “It’s something that will be here in Miami for students and the community to go visit and learn about the office of the presidency.”
How does the Freedom Tower factor in?
Situating the proposed Trump library alongside a building that is both a “shrine to immigration in Miami” and the former home of the Miami Daily News is “abhorrent to some,” said the Miami Herald. Unlike past presidential libraries, Trump’s proposed construction is “not just another historical archive,” and its presence next to the Freedom Tower is “twisted symbolism” given the president’s anti-immigration and anti-press freedoms platform. While the Tower “highlights the desperate journeys of immigrants fleeing communism and dictators,” a Trump library next door would “likely include his legacy of sweeping deportation proposals and anti-immigration crackdowns.”
“I can’t think of any two narratives that are any more in opposition than the one of the humanity that the Freedom Tower is a symbol for, and how this president has spoken about immigrants and immigration,” said activist Ana Sofia Pelaez, the co-founder and executive director of the Miami Freedom Project, to The Washington Post. For supporters of the project, however, the proximity between the two buildings is at least partially the point. “I can think of no better location” for the Trump library than next to the “Ellis Island of the South,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a video on X.
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What happens now?
Under the terms of the land transfer, the Trump presidential library foundation has five years to begin construction, with only “‘certain components’ of the property” required to be used for the library itself, said the Times. Trump has reportedly pushed for the construction to include a hotel along Miami’s ritzy Biscayne Boulevard. Critics of the deal say they plan to file a class action lawsuit to prevent the project from moving forward without public input.
“They’re taking land that belongs to our children’s future and giving it to Donald Trump for a library and hotel,” said Florida historian and former Florida International University professor Marvin Dunn to WPTV. “This is unacceptable.”
Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
