Looks like that shiny new Trump Presidential Library and Hotel in downtown Miami may be shelved.
Historian, professor and activist Dr. Marvin Dunn filed a lawsuit this week to stop the transfer of prime downtown land next to the Freedom Tower — yes, that Freedom Tower, the one that symbolizes liberty and exile and means so much to so many Miamians — from Miami Dade College to the state.
The lawsuit says the college’s trustees broke Florida’s Sunshine Law when they quietly voted last month to deed over the property to the Florida Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which just so happens to be controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cabinet — the same folks who, surprise surprise, turned around and voted to gift that same land to Trump’s library foundation.
In other words, no open discussion, no transparency, no real public notice — just a “potential real estate transaction” that somehow turned into a high-rise shrine to the Orange One.
“We’re seeking an injunction against the transfer of the land to the state on the ground that the decision to give the land to the state was made in violation of the Government in the Sunshine Act,” said Dunn’s attorney, Richard Brodsky.
Read related: Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel
Brodsky points out that Miami Dade College is still listed as the owner on the property appraiser’s website — which means, technically, the deal isn’t done. That gives a judge a window to block the transfer before the deed changes hands for good.
“Just one of those pesky ‘WOKE’ professors protesting Trump stealing land from kids for his library in downtown Miami,” Dunn 
posted on his social media last week as he stood in front of the parking lot with a sign that said “Stop the steal.”
“It’s just the sort of thing we ‘WOKE’ professors do, governor.”
Someone said MDC need to explain how this “gift” furthers the college’s mission ”to change lives through the opportunity of education, providing accessible, affordable, high-quality education to meet the needs of its diverse students and prepare them as responsible global citizens and successful lifelong learners, while serving as an economic, cultural, and civic beacon in the community.”
Dunn told CBS News Jim DeFede that he was “heartbroken” when he learned the decision. “Then I was outraged,” he said on Facing South Florida this past Sunday.
“That land belonged to our kids, to an expansion for the future. And to have that taken away without any public comment or ability to participate, I found that to be outrageous, heartbreaking,” said Dunn, who has fought against DeSantis before, with his “Teach the Truth” tour of black history lessons in the wake of Florida’s anti-woke curriculum. “And I’m very, very concerned that this is going to injure the future of our kids.”
Neither the college nor the governor’s office have wanted to comment on the lawsuit. Go figure. Perhaps they know they screwed up.
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The college’s only public notice before the vote, posted a week before its Sept. 23 meeting, vaguely said the board would “discuss potential real estate transactions.” The agenda posted the day before didn’t even specify which property — let alone that the trustees were about to hand over 2.6 acres of prime downtown property worth more than $200 million that the school bought in 2004 for future growth and has been using as a parking lot in the meantime.
“The Sunshine Act requires ‘reasonable notice’ to the public of a future meeting. The notice in this case provided the opposite of reasonable notice,” the lawsuit states. “This ‘notice’ is unquestionably inadequate, and therefore unreasonable. This was not in any way, a typical or run-of-the-mill ‘real estate transaction.'”
“The proposed giveaway cannot even charitably be characterized as a ‘transaction.’ No one not already in on the deal would have had any idea from this ‘notice’ of what the District Board of Trustees was actually planning to do,” the complaint continues. “In fact, the Vice Chairman of the District Board has claimed that the Board was unaware of the purpose of the decision but went ahead and voted for it because the Governor instructed them to do so.”
So it was a favor to the guv? Figures. The 7-member Board of Trustees is packed with DeSantis loyalists: Former State Reps. 
Michael Bileca and Jose Felix Diaz, Miami-Dade School Board Members Roberto Alonso and Mary Blanco — both originally appointed by DeSantis — Marcell Felipe, the co-founder of the now defunct MegaTV and chairman of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, Ismare Monreal, the chief operating officer at the city of Hialeah and a former legislative aid at the Florida House, and Juan Segovia, a homicide detective at the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
And just like that — poof! — the trustees voted, with no public debate, to give it to the state. A week later, DeSantis and the Cabinet voted to give it to Trump.
What did the college get in return? Nada. No cash. No endowment. No scholarship fund. Just a “commitment” that construction on the library would begin within five years.
A promise from Trumpworld? Yeah, let’s write that in pencil.
Public records show the trustees did not even have confirmation of the state’s plans for the land when they voted. But they did it anyway. Maybe they didn’t want to get in the way of the governor’s presidential ambitions or offend the MAGA donor class that sees a golden opportunity in Trump Tower 2.0 next to the Freedom Tower.
Dunn’s complaint insists this isn’t about politics.
“This action does not have to do with whether the District Board of Trustees made a wise decision. It is not brought to lodge a 
political protest,” the lawsuit states, even though there was a protest organize by Dunn over the weekend. “Depriving the public of reasonable notice of this proposed decision was a plain violation of the Sunshine Act and of the Florida Constitution.”
Still, the politics are hard to ignore. A Bendixen & Amandi poll released this week found that the vast majority of Miami-Dade voters — including 59% of Republicans — think the college should have kept the land.
Read related: Poll says Miami-Dade voters divided on most issues — and thinking of leaving
That’s right. Even most local GOP voters don’t like this one. Because it stinks — not of history, but of hubris.
And maybe that’s fitting. What better place for a Trump Presidential Library than on land handed over in secret, under questionable circumstances, with no debate or public benefit?
Lawsuit challenges MDC giveaway of downtown Miami lot for Trump library added by Ladra on
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