Special Coverage of the Trump Presidential Library in Miami
By Philip Cardella December 5, 2025
Hialeah, Florida
Chairman Bileca: Okay. I'm– we're gonna take up item one A. I'm gonna read it and then ask for a motion. Item one A is authorization to convey approximately 2.63 acres surface parking lot at the Wolfson Campus that is bounded by Northeast fifth Street, Northeast Second Avenue, Northeast sixth Street on Biscayne Boulevard to Florida's board of trustees of the Internal Improvements trust fund. For further conveyance for a Presidential Library for Donald J. Trump. Can I get a motion?
Motion to approve.
Second.
All in favor? Aye. Any aye. Any opposed? Show? The motion passes. The meeting is adjourned.
For three hours community members plead their cases for and against Miami-Dade College (formerly, Miami-Dade Community College) transferring likely the most valuable underdeveloped property it owns to the State of Florida, which would then transfer it to the Trump Presidential Library, free of charge.
The property is presently a parking lot in a busy tourist district adjacent to the building where the Miami Heat play. Anyone suggesting it doesn't generate revenue as a parking lot would be misleading at best.
While it was contended by many, including the Board of Trustees themselves, that "every" presidential library's property was given to the library, this appears to be misleading. The Obama Library in Chicago, itself the center of fierce debates there (contrary to claims by speakers during the meeting) was leased, albeit for free, to the library, for 99 years. While this may seem like a technicality, a lease is an agreement wherein the property remains ultimately with the original owner and therefore if the terms of the lease are broken, it can be revoked.
Other presidential libraries were built on property owned by the President or the library foundation.
It's not straightforward how to know for certain how the land for the Carter Presidential Library was acquired on the library's website or elsewhere, but The Atlanta Constitution said in 1984 that Carter bought land valued at $800,000 ($2.5m today) and swapped it for property with the Georgia Department of Transportation. Property, it should be noted, the Georgia DOT purchased for a project that collapsed a decade earlier during Carter's term as governor and was laying unused.
Vice Chairman Trustee Roberto Alonso told the audience, "There are 16 presidential libraries in the United States. None of them, and I'll say that again, none of them has ever paid for the land that they were built on."
Trustee Chairman Michael Bileca was more careful in his wording, telling the audience at the Miami-Dade College Trustee meeting "Every single presidential library has been, land has been donated to the presidential foundation," in answer to why the land should be given away to the library. But it seems that there's a conflation with some land being given in the 16 previous cases with all the land being given away, as is potentially the case. Put another way, it appears that most if not all of the previous 16 Presidential Libraries paid for at least some of the land that they sit on (or they weren't given it some much as loaned it), whereas in this case this prime real estate would be given away with nothing being paid.
The Miami Herald piece on how the public comment section, which lasted three hours, is fairly good, though it does equivocate unnecessarily: I got there a little late (due to a massive police presence around campus making it hard to park) so from 8:35 on I heard 66 people speak, 42 were opposed to it, one seemed ambivalent but wanted assurances of a return on investment (no assurances whatsoever are in the proposal, including that it will contain a Presidential Library at all) and 23 were in favor of the library. This is a 2-1 margin opposed to the land transfer.
The first Trustee to speak after the public comments, Marcell Felipe, spoke to the people opposed to the library for seventeen minutes in a monologue that rarely mentioned the library at all. From a cherry picked history of President Kennedy's relationship with Cubans and Cuban Americans (he was right to point out it wasn't/isn't good and for good reason), to a Jeremiad about what's wrong with the Democratic Party today and why it can't win and, notably, what it should do to win, to blasting audience members for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to operate freely on the college campus–until he alone put a stop to it, to congratulating himself for personally restoring the iconic Freedom Tower, Felipe's screed caused audience members to stream for the exits.
To me, the part that was most concerning about the speech was that he opened by accusing the opposition to the library of living in silos in social media. He begged everyone on both sides to watch a documentary, The Social Dilemma, about how social media is dividing the country and is toxic for our community. That's probably a good suggestion, which is why I linked to the movie.
What happened next I'm not so sure about: called out an audience member by name (she was one of about 100).
Felipe claimed, "[She's] saying about everything that you've read and how could we do this? You know, what kind of monsters are we, you didn't say the word monsters, but it was unfathomable how we could vote this way based on everything you've been reading (emphasis mine)."
In other words, Trustee Felipe called an audience member out by name who said she didn't like what she had read about the proposed land transfer and then blamed her for reading the Miami Herald, which, notably, is not a social media company, for making her think he was a monster, a word he acknowledges she never used. Felipe threatened to sue the Miami Herald and implicitly threatened the reporter. He then proceeded to brag about how his social media company America TeVe, has 2,000,000 social media subscribers–more than the Miami Herald.
It appears he was comparing YouTube subscriptions, on which America TeVe operates as a television company and the Miami Herald operates as a newspaper with 24 Pulitzer Prizes, including one in 2023.
Of course, when ten minutes into his rant about social media, the Chinese Communist Party, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, how his social media empire dwarfs the Miami Herald (complete with lawsuit threats), the audience began to demand he talk about the proposed land transfer, he started screaming at the audience that they were trying to silence him.
"No, excuse me," he bellowed at the audience when they started to chafe at his onslaught of personal and general attacks. "Lemme explain how this works. Listen, we live in a free country. You had a chance to speak. I have a chance to speak now. You don't get to shut me down because you don't agree with my point of view." Then he repeated for emphasis, "You don't get to shut me down because you don't agree with my point of view."
One audience member yelled back, "Your point of view on everything except the matter at hand."
Vice Chair Roberto Alonso was less angry and condescending than Trustee Felipe, but his words were also deceptive. There's the example above where he claims, contrary to evidence, that every other Presidential Library only sits on donated land.
Alonso also paints a stark dichotomy between the land in question being used for a Presidential Library or luxury condos.
"It's not about our legal obligations," Alonso told the audience. "It's about facts. It's about integrity, and it's about serving our community. And when discussions are clouding by speculation and mischaracterizations, it's our duty as a board and honestly as adults to make the record right, the choice today is simple."
It's a presidential library or luxury condos.
"It's a presidential library or luxury condos. One, invest in education opportunity and public good. The other invest in private profit. In 2018, the previous president of Miami-Dade College pushed and lobbied for luxury condos that would not benefit any students at this college," Alonso said.
He failed to mention that the previous president of the college wanted to sell the property, likely to be used for condos, to generate revenue for the college, which would, nearly by definition, be a benefit to the students.
Alonso continues on the student benefit line:
This project today delivers what private development cannot. It will create unparalleled educational opportunities for our students, including research programs, academic partnerships, and access to primary historical material that can enrich the learning of all disciplines. Students will engage with the library's collections, gain hands on experience, and have exposure to cultural programming that enhances critical thinking and civic understanding. Many of those students will never be able to travel to any other presidential library throughout this country to experience that there.
"That must be the condition of any revenue generating," he adds. Yet, by transferring the property to the state and the state to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation the Trustees eliminate any say they have in what happens on the site. The word "must" is therefore doing a lot of work, or more accurately, is merely symbolic or hopeful.
Vice Chairman Alonso was followed by Trustee Jose Felix Diaz who opened his comments by saying the vote, which is at the top of the page for your reference, isn't about a Presidential Library at all.
"We are not voting today in a presidential library," Trustee Diaz told the audience. "What we're voting on is a land transfer to the state based on the state's request for that land. And there is a lot of speculation. So I will speak about everything today on the speculation that this will be a presidential library, but that is for the state to decide, the state to negotiate. And we are creatures of the state. The colleges, the university is our public health system is, there's so many things in our community that are creatures of the state (emphasis mine)."
So, on one hand, the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Alonso says are his demands and expectations regarding a Presidential Library and the very next speaker, just moments later, says that the Trustees aren't voting on a Presidential Library, but on speculation that there will be a library and that its in the state's hands, something he implies he has no power over.
A few minutes later Trustee Diaz reiterates his position, "We're not making or negotiating a decision with anybody. I haven't spoken with anybody, the Trump team. We are simply doing what the state has asked us to do. And that is transfer this piece of land that is ultimately the state's for them to, possibly, maybe give us the first presidential library that a college has ever had in the history of the United States."
Chairman Bileca later added his thoughts to "fill in some gaps." Bileca said, "I can also give the perspective like Trustee Diaz former Senate Diaz of being in the legislature, chairing education committees. As he said, we are asked by the state of Florida, by the cabinet, by this governor to convey our unused land to the state. We are a state college. We're not University of Miami. We're not an SMU, we're not UMass, we're not Texas A and M or SMU. We're not a private university. We are a state university funded by the state, created by the state, and asked by the state to convey to convey this property."
Fun fact, Texas A & M is not only a public university, it's Texas's first public university, not that that's particularly important in this discussion, I'm not even sure why he brought it up. UMass is also public, not private.
Besides the University of Miami there are several private universities in Miami-Dade County including Florida Memorial University, a Historic Black College and University and one of the state's oldest institutions of higher education, and Barry University a well regarded Catholic university serving 7,000 students a year.
As for the claim that the Trustees must convey the land to the state because the state requires it, the Trustees of every public community college in Florida are governed by Florida Statute 1004.65, called the "Florida College System institutions; governance, mission, and responsibilities."
The opening three sections of that statute read:
(1) Each Florida College System institution shall be governed by a district board of trustees under statutory authority and rules of the State Board of Education.(2) Each Florida College System institution district shall:(a) Consist of the county or counties served by the Florida College System institution pursuant to s. 1000.21(5).(b) Be an independent, separate, legal entity created for the operation of a Florida College System institution.(3) Florida College System institutions are locally based and governed entities with statutory and funding ties to state government. As such, the mission for Florida College System institutions reflects a commitment to be responsive to local educational needs and challenges. In achieving this mission, Florida College System institutions strive to maintain sufficient local authority and flexibility while preserving appropriate legal accountability to the state.
Key provisions are that the college must be governed by a board of trustees and it must "Be an independent, separate, legal entity."
So, Trustees at the meeting claimed they didn't have to vote, but they did anyway. They weren't voting on a Presidential Library, but they explicitly said in the vote they were voting on a Presidential Library, that they have no power over the state, which seems to contradict Florida Statute 1004.65(2), which requires them to be independent, they make demands of what the library should be, while acknowledging that they have no power to determine even if there is to be a library at the site.
They also named public speakers to attack personally.
I've seen this in other public forums opened to public comments where the public makes its comments and then the board of whatever entity it is responds, often opening up with an attack by whatever board member is angriest, who then proceeds to violate the rules everyone else followed, get called out by the audience for violating the rules everyone else followed by and claims they are a victim of being silenced.
It genuinely makes me wonder if the public comments section followed by a board or committee with no possible back and forth is even worth it. Yes, voices get heard and often get on the record, but even that can be deceptive when it allows the committee to say they've listened to the public though there's no indication that they have functionally "heard" the public, as one public commenter begged them to do.
Take for example when and where the meeting was held. While Miami-Dade College has locations all over the county, the meeting met almost as far away from the campus in question as possible, at 8 AM in the morning. Audience members in favor of the library land transfer, many of whom were in fancy business attire flashing jewelry, literally chided the people who were opposed to the land transfer of being white and disconnected academics. For example:
The opposition is not coming from Hispanics, it's coming from Democrat activists. Let's, let's be clear, the majority of Hispanic voters who supported Trump in 2020 and 2024 live here. They outnumbered the academic activists who show up to cry about optics surveys consistently show Hispanic support for Trump's economic policy, border security, and anti-socialist agenda. So where is this opposition coming from? It's not from our community. It's from Democrat operatives and activist professors looking for attention...If they truly cared about public good, he they would've fought just as hard. When Barack Obama pulled those 19 acres of Chicago parkland for his presidential center actual green space that was used by children and families, that silence exposes what this really is. It's anti-Trump activism and nothing more.
But note the time. Who could be at a meeting in a suburb away from the business core of the county at 8 AM? Wealthy people and retired people made up the bulk of the audience on both sides and, frankly, I'm not sure what else could be expected.
The Obama Library in Chicago reference also suggests the speaker believed those opposed were not from Miami-Dade County, despite most indicating that they were indeed from Miami-Dade County and many stating they attended "Miami-Dade Community College." And please also note above where I pointed out that the Obama library has met fierce opposition from people living in Chicago.
All of the quotes are from a recording I made that started around 8:35 (I'm not sure of the exact time), took a break I think around 11 AM, and resumed until the adjournment of the meeting. Audio recordings and full transcript are available upon request.