Miami Historian Plans to Sue Again Over Trump Presidential Library

On Monday night, along with much of the world, local historian and activist Marvin Dunn pressed play on a nearly two-minute AI-generated video depicting what Donald Trump’s future presidential library could look like in downtown Miami.

Dunn’s reaction came in a single word: “horror.”

“I don’t believe that most of the people in Miami, in this community, want to see that building dominating Biscayne Boulevard,” the 85-year-old tells New Times.

The video tour of the project imagines a new, towering skyscraper in downtown Miami as Trump’s future presidential library. It shows a massive high-rise packed with the kind of gilded excess that has come to define the president’s brand: a golden escalator, what appears to be a Boeing 747 modeled after Air Force One parked near the entrance, and an auditorium featuring a massive gold statue of Trump with his fist raised to the sky.

As critics deride the project as yet another scheme to enrich the Trump family, Dunn tells New Times he plans to sue once again to stop it.

Dunn, who previously sued Miami Dade College to stop it from transferring the 2.6-acre property to the state to be deeded to Trump’s foundation, says he’s preparing a new lawsuit challenging Miami Dade College and its Board of Trustees, with students potentially signed on as plaintiffs.

He says he began planning the new lawsuit when the previous one was dismissed in December.

“The video was helpful,” Dunn says, “but we were going ahead anyway.”

Dunn argues that Trump violated the Constitution by accepting a gift that carries a commercial benefit while in office. He says the Board of Trustees also failed in its fiduciary responsibility to protect the college’s assets. He hopes to file a suit by next week.

“Anyone with eyes can see that this is not a library, it’s a Trump hotel,” Dunn says. “If not hotel and condo.”

Neither the White House nor The Trump Organization responded to New Times‘ request for comment.

The video released by the president’s foundation shows the proposed building dwarfing the nearby Freedom Tower, a historic downtown Miami landmark where Cuban refugees arriving in South Florida decades ago received assistance. The renderings are credited to Bermello Ajamil, a global architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Miami that did not respond to a request for comment.

By Tuesday evening, Trump suggested the structure may not be a library at all.

“This concept could be office, but it’s most likely gonna be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby,” the president told reporters at the Oval Office. (He also noted that he doesn’t “believe in building libraries or museums.”).

Dunn argues that the land belongs to the students of Miami Dade College — not Trump.

“It’s their land,” Dunn says. “The Board of Trustees is supposed to protect that land for the benefit of the students, and they didn’t, and that’s the violation of the law.”

Andres Rivero, an attorney who represented Dunn in his previous lawsuit against Miami Dade College, tells New Times that he plans to represent Dunn again.

Rivero said they’re currently “analyzing their options” for the case and declined to comment further.

Last year, Dunn sued Miami Dade College, the public institution that owned the swath of prime real estate, and accused it of failing to give the public sufficient notice before a meeting in which trustees conveyed the land to the state to then be deeded to Trump’s library foundation. He questioned who the public land ultimately belongs to, and who gets to decide its future.

According to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser, the land was valued at more than $67 million. One real estate expert reportedly said the parcel, which some have described as a “developer’s dream,” could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars or more.

But while a judge initially ruled in Dunn’s favor, the board eventually held another vote in a public meeting and approved the land transfer to the nonprofit foundation.

In the December hearing, in which the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the land transfer, Dunn’s lawyers said they would continue pursuing the case at his expense.

The court required Dunn to post a $150,000 bond for the case to move forward. In a GoFundMe page, he said he had raised $26,000 but borrowed the rest of the money.

While Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz ultimately dismissed the case without prejudice, she acknowledged Dunn’s decision to leverage his home to pay the bond as part of the terms of her order. She described him as someone “willing to put themselves, their money and their home on the line for the better good.”

“I thank you,” Ruiz told Dunn.

Dunn contends Miami (which “deserves this building,” Eric Trump told the Miami Herald ) was chosen for one reason: the Trump family stands to profit.

“Mar-a-Lago deserves this building, not Miami,” Dunn says. “He doesn’t live here.”