Miami Dade College is giving away a $67 million piece of prime downtown Miami real estate — to Donald Trump.
That’s right: the parking lot next to the Freedom Tower, right across from the Kaseya Center and steps from PortMiami, is being handed over for Trump’s future presidential library — and potentially a hotel.
This land wasn’t just any empty lot. It was bought by MDC in 2004 after much sacrifice, intended to support a growing student population and expand the Wolfson Campus. Former MDC president Eduardo Padrón once called the property “critical” to the college’s future. Now it’s gone — in a blink.
Last month, in a barely-noticed meeting with a vague agenda referencing “potential real estate transactions,” MDC’s Board of Trustees voted to transfer the land to the state. There was no mention of the $67 million value. No mention of Trump. No real public discussion.
The same day, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that his Cabinet would vote to gift the parcel to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. His appointees, including Attorney General James Uthmeier and CFO Blaise Ingoglia, celebrated online. Ingoglia even called it one of his “first votes.” Cute. Uthmeier went so far as to post a video claiming no better location could tell Trump’s story than next to the Freedom Tower — often called “Miami’s Ellis Island of the South.”
The irony? The Freedom Tower once welcomed Cuban refugees fleeing Castro. Trump, by contrast, is promising mass deportations and suspended asylum his first week in office. Many Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants in Miami are now in deportation proceedings thanks to his policies.
The location is undeniably prime: 2.6 acres, across from Bayside and the $6 billion Miami Worldcenter, at the heart of downtown. It’s the same area where MDC invested $25 million to restore the Freedom Tower. Years ago, the school even considered developing the lot into a conference center or a building for the New World School of the Arts. Developers showed interest. It could have brought in major revenue. Instead, the land was just… given away. No bidding. No public engagement. No transparency.
Padrón, who led MDC for nearly 25 years, was stunned.
“It’s frankly unimaginable,” he told WLRN. “There was a lot of sacrifice to gain that piece of land for the college.”
Translation: it was meant for students, not a Trump vanity project.
Trump has been shopping around for a library location — FAU, FIU, and MDC were all considered. Miami appears to have “won” — although some insiders say this might just be a satellite site. And this could be the first presidential library with a hotel attached. Think about it: A Trump Library-Hotel, where visitors can tour exhibits of “alternative facts” and then book a luxury suite.
Enrollment at Wolfson Campus has grown from 19,500 in 2003 to more than 27,000 today. Across the system, MDC now serves nearly 59,000 students. It’s one of the largest community colleges in the U.S., and it needs more space — not less. But according to MDC Board Vice Chair Roberto Alonso (a DeSantis appointee), the college didn’t really need the lot anymore. He called the library an “economic engine” that would “take Miami to the next level.” The next level of what? Political cronyism? Hypocrisy?
Alonso insists this isn’t about politics — it’s “about the office of the presidency.” But it’s hard to ignore the politics when the whole process was rushed and hidden from public view. Trump’s Foundation — reportedly holding $53 million in pledges, boosted by legal settlement funds from his defamation suits against media companies — has five years to break ground.
Current MDC President Madeline Pumariega called the decision “historic.” And it is — but not in a good way. This is a historic giveaway of tens of millions in public land, intended for students, sacrificed for a presidential vanity project.
The Freedom Tower will still stand as a symbol of liberty. But now, it may sit beside a monument to political favoritism, opportunism, and a college’s abandonment of its own mission.
Source: Political Cortadito
