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Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet heartily voted Tuesday to give a pricey parcel owned by Miami Dade College to a Trump family foundation for a future library honoring President Donald Trump.
The unanimous vote by DeSantis and the Cabinet, augmented by their crowing praise of the 47th president, officially approved the transfer of the $66 million real estate from the state-run college to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, led by Trump’s son, son-in-law, and lawyer.
“President Trump has a great story to tell as a Florida resident, and I think it’s quite fitting that we house it…as Miami becomes kind of the capital of the world in many respects,” said James Uthmeier, the state’s attorney general. DeSantis and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia echoed the acclaim, lauding Miami Dade as the first state college to potentially house a presidential library.
These officials are elected statewide, independent of Florida’s governors, and help shape policy in a range of areas, including public lands.
Although the White House had stayed largely quiet about the library’s location after the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees unanimously approved the property transfer last week, Eric Trump, executive vice president of Trump’s library foundation, took to social media to thank the Florida officials for their resounding support.
“Consistent with our families [sic] DNA, this will be one of the most beautiful buildings ever built, an icon on the Miami skyline — rest assured it will not look like President Obamas’ [sic] prison like structure,’” the younger Trump wrote. He heads the foundation alongside Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boulos, and James Kiley, a Trump attorney.
The 2.63-acre parcel belonged to Miami Dade College as an employee parking lot for its Wolfson Campus downtown.
It neighbors the Freedom Tower, declared a historical landmark for its role in sheltering Cuban refugees in the 1960s, and the Miami Heat’s basketball arena, located on Biscayne Boulevard.
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