Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top elected Republican state officials are poised to donate a prime property in downtown Miami to the nonprofit raising money for President Trump’s presidential library.
Some estimate that the property, facing Biscayne Bay, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It belonged to Miami Dade College until last week, when the college’s trustees voted without any discussion to convey it to the state.
Mr. DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet — the state attorney general, agriculture commissioner and chief financial officer — are scheduled to vote on the property’s conveyance when they meet on Tuesday in Tallahassee, in their capacity as the trustees of a fund that controls state lands. Mr. DeSantis and James Uthmeier, the attorney general, have already publicly endorsed the move.
“You’re going to have a presidential library in the state of Florida,” Mr. DeSantis said at a news conference in Miami last week.
A vote to convey the property as a gift would affirm that the governor and cabinet members believe that its “intended use will provide a greater benefit to the public than its retention in state ownership,” according to agenda documents for Tuesday’s meeting. It would also essentially put the property under the control of the Trump family.
Neither Mr. Trump nor his aides have revealed any concrete plans for a future library. The president’s son Eric and son-in-law Michael Boulos incorporated a Florida-based foundation to raise money for the library in May. The Trump Organization and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
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