May 13, 2026
"A group of Miami residents sued President Donald Trump, Florida officials and trustees of Miami Dade College on Tuesday over Trump’s planned presidential library..."
"... claiming that the college’s decision to hand over a coveted parcel of land for the project constitutes an illegal benefit for the president.
The litigants — who include a current Miami Dade College student — allege that the land transfer violates the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause, which bars states from attempting to influence a president by giving him gifts. They argue that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his handpicked board of trustees at the state-operated college were wrong to give a nearly three-acre parcel in downtown Miami to Trump’s library foundation last year in exchange for $10. The county’s property appraiser had said the land was worth more than $67 million...."
Posts
91 comments:
In other news ... waaaa and it's only OK when Obama does it.
No standing. Adios
The Trump library will have 3 million copies of Art of the Deal. Along with a copy of Dreams from my Father with the “About the Author” page stating “Barack Obama was born in Kenya.”
What was the positive economic impact projected for the city and state?
Its a non profit how is it an emolument
An already ego-sized project like this will have billions in security costs alone. Thing will be a vandalism magnet for decades which is ironic because graffiti would be a definite improvement to Obama's brutalist Chode.
Not only would graffiti improve The Chode it would naturally gel aesthetically with Chicongo.
You mean there isnt grafitti inside
Never hated attorneys enough…
Presidents don't own the libraries .
Next time the leftie whine about Trump spend this or that waa waa waa hand them a bill for all their frivolous lawsuits…
After trump is done arranging the world properly he really needs to let the American Garden of freedom be weeded.
There are just too many people in the country who just don’t belong here.
"A group of Miami residents sued President Donald Trump...
If Trump stopped at a Circle K and bought a slurpee, some leftard asshole would sue him for... well, something.
TDS is real. And it's spectacular.
Some guyz ij the neighborhood
Downtown has been a mess for 30 yewrs or so
Since the first riots in 1980
Graffiti solution: Put up an open wall for daily artwork additions. It'll result in instant changes and flip-flops between viewpoints, with nonstop painting. It'll keep the memory of TDS alive for future generations.
Living history.
Bonus proposal: Have a "file a lawsuit" kiosk to automate the process. Write down your grievance to be added to the annual class action case against the ghost of Donald. He'll live rent free in millions of heads forever and ever.
The world has a surplus of morons with too much time on their hands---and money to hire lawyers who'll file moronic meritless lawsuits.
This is what The Opposition looks like, when it is out of ideas and can only react against the Principal, instead of influence and persuade the Populace.
Mason,
Slurpees are only at 7/11. Every other icee/slushy/etc. is just a Slurpee wannabe!
Ok then- I stand corrected.
"Emoluments". I like this word because it sounds like it's about something that it isn't. Because I don't use it often enough, nor see it in print enough to familiarizase myself with it long enough to attach it a fixed definition. Every time I see it, enough time has elapse for me to go 'I know it's not what it sounds like it might be'. So, I'm not going to look it up again. Nor am I going to read the the post past the word, lest I start remembering what it means and lose, to my weary ears, all it's charm.
Sounds like a powerful laxative
"It puts the emolument on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
What Mason said, and they’ll sue him for going to a Circle K and asking for one. Democracy can only be protected by forgoing winning at the ballot box and just using the courts, because the people can’t be trusted and therefore an elite few must decide.
It's good that sites like this still exist, because my biggest fear is falling victim to some kind of scam and losing my income. So, I've been playing here https://carlospinplay.com for about six months, and they haven't let me down once.
I don't know enough about the lawsuit to have a view on whether it makes sense, but the whole "library/hotel/airplane museum" concept deserves some scrutiny. As I understand it, the land was deeded over to the state, who then transferred it to the library foundation, all at a nominal cost. The non-profit developing the project is led by Eric Trump. The project concept is dominated by a for-profit hotel (presumably Trump-branded). If this goes forward, you have a state government providing essentially free land on the Miami bayfront to site a hotel development (with a library attached) controlled by and financially benefitting family members of a sitting president.
I know there are dodgy aspects to many (most?) big projects, but this seems pretty egregious by the sound of it. We were all angry about the Biden family's attempts to profit from Joe's position, Hillary's stock profits, etc. Why shouldn't we be upset about this deal? Just because lots of the people questioning the deal have TDS, that doesn't make the questioning illegitimate.
Something like that
" Democracy can only be protected by forgoing winning at the ballot box..."
Democrats interpret winning elections as a mandate to do whatever they want and ignoring anyone who disagrees because "Elections have consequences."
When Democrats lose, however, they insist the winners compromise on their policies and accommodate Democrat desires because it's not fair otherwise.
In other words, Democrats have the emotional/intellectual maturity of four-year-olds.
"Just because lots of the people questioning the deal have TDS, that doesn't make the questioning illegitimate."
No, it doesn't. But here's the deal- the left has been going to court over every flipping thing Trump has done since taking office. Virtually... Every Single Thing. There isn't even the tiniest semblance of recognition that the voters put him in office to do pretty much what he's doing. Not even the regular court rulings supporting his actions makes an impression on the left, they just keep pissing and moaning about it all. Because Trump.
So if some people have reached the point where they don't GAF about the latest Daily Leftard Outrage, can you really blame them?
To bring in the subject of two posts down, Thrusting Emoluments would be a great name for a punk band. CC, JSM
"The project concept is dominated by a for-profit hotel (presumably Trump-branded)."
"for profit" - You have anything to back that up?
I think we can all agree questions about our guy’s presidential library are ludicrous while questions about their guy’s presidential library are entirely justified.
“Emoluments Clause“? What about the Botanicals Clause?
In proximity, adjacent, or transition?
Mason G said...
"Just because lots of the people questioning the deal have TDS, that doesn't make the questioning illegitimate."
No, it doesn't. But here's the deal- the left has been going to court over every flipping thing Trump has done since taking office.
------
I understand all that. I understand you're tired of all the attacks on Trump. What I'm saying is, regardless of whether it's Trump or Biden or Clinton, using your position for family financial gain is unethical and should be stopped. This is a bigger issue than the individuals involved.
News Flash! Trump sued for the 235467th time!
What was the tax assessment - I have been reliably informed that the tax assessment is entirely dispositive of the value of a lot of land in Miami Beach.
Sue the National Archives and force them to place it underwater, in tornado alley, next to a Green blight, or some other unaffordable, inaccessible location where profits will not bloom.
Martha's Vineyard, perhaps, on a coastal estate, where migrants DREAMing are denied sanctuary, room, and board.
A nonprofit can own a profit making asset like a hotel to help fund its nonprofit operations. Colleges and universities do as part of their endowments.
Rabel said...
"The project concept is dominated by a for-profit hotel (presumably Trump-branded)."
"for profit" - You have anything to back that up?
-----
OK, you got me, I have no proof. Just a hunch that they're planning on profiting from building a 50 story hotel on the bayfront in downtown Miami. I may be wrong.
The "library" label on what sounds like a Trump-branded high-rise hotel on discounted public waterfront land invites exactly this scrutiny—same as Hunter's art sales or Clinton Foundation foreign donations.
Mason G: "It puts the emolument on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
Oh so close. Try "emollient" instead: a medicinal or cosmetic substance that moisturizes, softens, and soothes skin by filling in cracks in the epidermis, preventing water loss, and reducing irritation.
[And also making the skin suit so much more pleasing to wear.]
I always wondered why the founders were worried about lotions.
Its down town miami (i know shows like burn notice dont diffenciate
"What I'm saying is, regardless of whether it's Trump or Biden or Clinton, using your position for family financial gain is unethical and should be stopped."
Sure- it should be, and I understand the urgency because Trump. So- who's going to check on the Democrats to get them to cut back on their ethics lapses? Certainly, the MSM isn't interested in publicizing any of that, and any efforts by Republicans to hold them accountable are met with screams of "Lawfare!" by the left. As if *that* ever stopped them with *their* witch hunts.
"This is a bigger issue than the individuals involved."
This was brought up regarding the previous administration's actions. I'm sure everybody is aware of how that turned out.
“What I'm saying is, regardless of whether it's Trump or Biden or Clinton, using your position for family financial gain is unethical and should be stopped. This is a bigger issue than the individuals involved.”
I wonder if the Aussies were ever able to get former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to stop picking and eating his own ear wax and switch to boogers?
Thats one kangaroo too far iman
Advice that will not be followed, if you know you are ignorant about a subject, best not to give an opinion about the legality of it.
I’ve been to the George HW Bush Library. It sits on Texas A&M University property. George and his wife Barbara are buried there. Books written by them and other family members are sold for a profit in the library bookstore. Now proceed to explain how it is different for Trump.
"... using your position for family financial gain is unethical and should be stopped. This is a bigger issue than the individuals involved."
Every politician in history above dog catcher has done that. Trump's first term might be the only time in history it didn't happen. He likely lost $1 Billion. I agree that getting rich from your office is concerning and should be scrutinized, but it's virtually impossible not to get rich from being POTUS. You would have to be Jesus level self-sacrificing. Millions of people will pay lots of money just to hear you talk. Are you going to refuse that? The issue is do the people paying get political favors for it, which is also impossible to avoid. How do you decide if a President wouldn't have done something even without the donation?
The bezos post will not point this out
How do other ex-Presidents acquire land? In Georgia, Carter used eminent domain to mow down a bunch of private historic homes and businesses away from people and until his death -- and likely beyond it -- then hosted actual terrorists and pro-cop killers at his library.
The Biden/Ukraine bribe was different. He used public money to protect his own son from being investigated, and he bragged about the quid pro quo.
It's (D)ifferent when (D)emocrats do it.
Amusingly, they were all liberals.
tell us More? about how the state of Illinois gave much of Chicago's Jaskson Park to Barry O'Bama for his hotel/covention center?
Not to mention the class a war criminal that donated to carters library sasagawa for those with decoder rings
“ How do other ex-Presidents acquire land? In Georgia, Carter used eminent domain to mow down a bunch of private historic homes and businesses away from people and until his death -- and likely beyond it -- then hosted actual terrorists and pro-cop killers at his library.”
And the Carter Library was built on the position of General Sherman’s Headquarters during the Battle of Atlanta. The man had no respect for anything, except himself.
“ TDS is real. And it's spectacular.”
I’ve stopped calling it TDS in favor of Trump Hate.
Just because lots of the people questioning the deal have TDS, that doesn't make the questioning illegitimate.
Technically true, but that manifestly is the way to bet.
I understand all that. I understand you're tired of all the attacks on Trump.
No. Just no. You have no effing concept of how fed up we normal people are over the relentless TDS. Can’t you and the rest of the TDS sufferers just die already? Your attention to this would be appreciated.
"... using your position for family financial gain is unethical and should be stopped. This is a bigger issue than the individuals involved."
Name the last President who didn’t write his memoirs, which didn’t get read by anyone, yet he was paid a huge advance.
"Name the last President who didn’t write his memoirs, which didn’t get read by anyone, yet he was paid a huge advance."
Yeah. But Trump...
"Now proceed to explain how it is different for Trump."
Presidential libraries have always had some commercialization and foundation involvement. But the combination of sitting president + family profit potential + massive commercial tower on gifted prime land is what makes this version stand out and warrant stricter scrutiny. The Bush example shows how these projects can be done within norms; the Trump proposal tests how far those norms can stretch. Both deserve transparency, but the differences in structure, timing, and commercial dominance are real and substantive.
The Biden Library will be a petrified stack of donated animal feces.
Quite high.
Worse than a chilean bird sanctuary
A hotel has some practical use, it is a step up, 80 floors up. The whole presidential library thing has gotten ridiculous, might as well make them useful.
Celebrating the legacy of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, friend of Winrock International - Winrock International https://share.google/b4NYLbMSb6n64EJ1r
There needs to be consequences for the lawyers. It’s the only way to rein in this abuse of public resources.
As near as I can tell the lot in question is a relatively small parking lot that has been tied up in litigation for MANY years, not some valuable beachfront resort.
The Biden Library will be a petrified stack of donated animal feces.
Quite high.
It will be a garage with a mid-life crisis convertible and classified documents strewn about the oil-stained concrete floor. Or maybe a Chinese-access-only closet at U. Penn.
... using your position for family financial gain is unethical and should be stopped.
The Kennedy's would like a word (as would Bush Jr., Hillary, JEB! (fruitlessly), JQ Adams, FDR, etc.). Unless, of course, you mean that using your family for financial gain through political means is somehow exempt.
Lyndon Johnson (or his non-profit) got land from UTexas for little or nothing. The presidential libraries of Ford and the two Bushes are also university-affiliated. The land may have been provided by the universities on similar terms to LBJ's deal. If the sticking point is the hotel, make it non--profit. The Trumps have enough money now. Or maybe even cut it out entirely. Better to have people talk about why it isn't there than why it is. FDR gave his own land for the library -- assuming that wasn't done by Eleanor after he passed away.
All I would say is that no matter what other pres do, whatever Trump does is evil.
Another squirrel.
Why does Trump need a Presidential Library? For control of Presidential papers, momentous, etc, after he leaves office.
Sounds simple. It’s not. Trump didn’t have one, when he left office in 2021, and legally, it was a mess. Who owned his papers, etc? He believed that he did. I think that he was right. But Jay Bratt, Jack Smith, and AG Garland (conveniently) believed that they belonged to the National Archives, which the Biden WH told to fully cooperate with the FBI, which effectively gave Bratt, as head of the DOJ’s Counterintelligence and Export Control branch (CECB), control over Trump’s Presidential Papers. Turns out that CECB is the sister organization to the FBI’s notorious Counterintelligence Division (CD). Yes, these were the two groups who invented the Crossfire Hurricane (and related) and the RussiaGate investigations.
If all this is starting to sound familiar, it should. It was at the core of the Bratt/Smith Independent Counsel documents case against Trump in FL, ultimately dismissed by Judge Cannon, but not before CD led the heavily armed raid that ended up with agents rooting through Melonia’s underwear drawers in their private quarters at MAL.
ALL because Trump didn’t have a formal Presidential Library set up when he left office in 2021. Humorously, it doesn’t really matter if the Presidential Library is ever really built. It’s that it legally exists. The National Archives physically controls a former President’s Papers and mementos, for the benefit of the former President’s Library, which has legal, but not physical, control over them. Then, the former President can spend decades having designates go through them, to determine what is what.
On the flip side, this connection between Crossfire Hurricane/RussiaGate and the Bratt/Smith Independent Counsel documents case against Trump may be the critical piece that blows open the statute of limitations that would otherwise prevent justice from being done in the former cases. It turns it into a Conspiracy, where the statute of limitations is, essentially, tolled.
A lot of incriminating evidence about these scandals has been found over the last year or two about these scandals. The FBI, in particular, seems institutionally incapable of deleting internal records. But they can hide them. The CD records for all their shenanigans were highly classified, and stored in the FBI’s case management system in invisible accounts. That’s where DNI Gabbard came in - she was the one person (beyond the President) who can look into any intelligence silo, and pull out what she wanted. Hence why the FBI’s CD was so desperate to take out DNI Flynn, before he fully got his feet on the ground. Once he did, he could have nipped the RussiaGate conspiracy by the IC, and esp FBI CD, at the bud.
And why Dan Bongino was made FBI DD. He knew more than almost anyone about these scandals, and the FBI misdeeds behind them. Between DNI Gabbord and FBI DD Bongino, they knew where to look, and had the power to do it. And did. They found the secret accounts in the FBI’S case management system, plus a hidden room at FBI HQ filled with burn bags of physical evidence.
Dan Bongino really took down the Deep State like he promised. Man, what a legend. From his podcast studio, Bongino is now going to expose all the Deep State criminals he was unable to find when he was in charge of the FBI.
“ Dan Bongino really took down the Deep State like he promised. Man, what a legend. From his podcast studio, Bongino is now going to expose all the Deep State criminals he was unable to find when he was in charge of the FBI.”
Your usual TDS addled propaganda.
If you listened or read anything beyond TDS addled propaganda, like the NYT, you would know that they have names and actions. A lot of them. And have turned them over to the DOJ for prosecution. Getting back to Crossfire Hurricane and RussiaGate is the evidentiary problem - proving that there is enough links to prove enough of a conspiracy, to toll the statute of limitations. FBI CD agents demonstrably lied to federal judges about their MAL raid, including to Judge Cannon, thus criminally violating § 1001. Yes, the same criminal statute illegally utilized against LTG Flynn, to take him out as DNI. But making the Conspiracy case iron clad is going to take a lot more work than just showing that the FBI’s CD (and DOJ’s CECB) ran both the FL Documents case and Crossfire Hurricane/RussiaGate. Both Gabbord and Bongino have stated that they have enough evidence. We shall see.
His fillings on his teeth
Is there no such thing as "standing" as a legal concept any more?
Trump has been the recipient of an amazing amount of lawfare from the left since he's been in office, much of it baseless stuff just trying to stop his agenda. I don't know if the library suit is part of that or not. I'm saying that this real estate deal itself looks dodgy and should be investigated. I say that, not as a TDS sufferer but as someone who prefers non-dodgy real estate deals. I also think that if you guys were to read a story about a random Miami politician getting a sweetheart deal on a property in downtown Miami to build a 50 story hotel, you'd think it looked dodgy too.
Big Mike said...
No. Just no. You have no effing concept of how fed up we normal people are over the relentless TDS. Can’t you and the rest of the TDS sufferers just die already? Your attention to this would be appreciated
Big Mike, I don't wish ill upon you. I'll give you some advice you won't take- you really should never get so invested in a politician that you would wish death on their opponents. Relax, please. It's bad for your blood pressure.
Should be about time for another Dan Bongino “really big things are about to happen!” post, where we learn that the sinister leaders of the Deep State will be arrested any day now. It’s been about a week since the last one & that’s a long time to go without praise from the cult.
Are lefties dumb enough to believe that Presidential libraries are the private property of the politicians for whom they are named? It would appear so.
Hayden: "Humorously, it doesn’t really matter if the Presidential Library is ever really built. It’s that it legally exists."
I wouldn't be too comfortable with that arrangement. Lots of National Archives employees could be found to make inconvenient records go away so that, if not Hitler, then certainly Eva Braun, Ilsa, Goering, Goebbels, Heydrich, Skorzeny, etc, have no evidence available for their defense in post-47 lawfare.
If the Trump Library has physical custody, that will be much harder to do. CC, JSM
"...you really should never get so invested in a politician that you would wish death on their opponents...."
Well, at least you clarified your position after pretending to be carefully neutral. As others have mentioned, Presidential Libraries are often, maybe even usually, a symbiotic endeavor between a Presidential administration and a municipality or university which stands to gain from the traffic and prestige.
It's not as if Trump is going to profit from this himself by charging admission or anything. And we can all be certain that if this thing is built 100% on donations, as they usually are, that there will be a plethora of lawsuits to combat the largess of the benefactors, tooth and nail. Of all the recent Presidents, I would say that Trump has been the least interested in self-enrichment.
“I wouldn't be too comfortable with that arrangement. Lots of National Archives employees could be found to make inconvenient records go away so that, if not Hitler, then certainly Eva Braun, Ilsa, Goering, Goebbels, Heydrich, Skorzeny, etc, have no evidence available for their defense in post-47 lawfare.”
“If the Trump Library has physical custody, that will be much harder to do. CC, JSM”
The thing about those documents marked classified that the FBI (CD) found in their MAL raid, they really didn’t matter one way or another. What apparently happened during Trump’s first term, was that after a phone call or meeting, his staff would clear his desk into storage boxes, and when full, the boxes would sealed and marked. Many, if not almost all of them, wouldn’t be opened again until done by the FBI during or after the MAL raid. At times, he had classified documents on his desk, when staff cleared his desk, they went into those boxes, along with everything else on his desk at the time, and those were the documents marked as classified that Jay Bratt and his henchmen found after their MAL raid.
As a note, the FBI was shown to have mixed up the order of what was in the boxes, and which box things were in. This was relevant to showing lack of specific intent, so the FBI effectively destroyed, or at diminished they defense. With good attorneys and a sympathetic judge (both of which Trump had), it’s likely that some of the fruits of the FBI’s MAL search would have been suppressed. But then, the FBI had greatly exceeded the bounds of the search warrant anyway…
The point though is that if NAR employees had made stuff disappear, it’s likely that no one would have cared.
Finally, it is decently probable that the real reason for the MAL was hopefully recover the binder of (mostly) RussiaGate documents that Trump had expressly ordered declassified his last full day in office. Which apparently never were formally declassified over the entirety of Biden’s Presidency. What they appear to have covered were misdeeds, illegalities, etc, by the DOJ’s CECB and the FBI’s CD - the very same two organizations running the MAL raid and the entire FL documents case. It is likely that they were not found in the raid, because they weren’t admitted to having been found by either side. But were apparently found later by DNI Gabbard and FBI DD Bangino. My guess is that they were the documents marked classified, that Trump didn’t want found, but great FBI CD and DOJ CECB desperately did want to find.
Well, the litigants done screwed themselves. All they've done is put a price on their peevish display of antagonism. Trump and his donors can pay the $67 million for the property, and the dogs in the manger will have to move right on the hell out.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.