MIAMI, Sept. 29, 2025 – Tomorrow Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet will vote on whether to hand over a prime piece of downtown Miami real estate to Donald Trump’s nonprofit foundation. The land, sitting just south of the Freedom Tower and valued by appraisers at $67 million, is slated for a presidential library and perhaps even a hotel.

What stands out is not the idea of a library but the way the deal has been pushed through. Miami Dade College’s Board of Trustees transferred the property to the state last week in a hurried meeting with no public comment, no debate, and no clear disclosure of terms. Even the college president admitted afterward she was not sure what the state intended. No records have been produced showing what, if anything, the college received in exchange for land it bought for $25 million two decades ago.

Developers familiar with the site believe the commercial value is closer to $200 or $300 million, far above the state’s appraisal. In past years, serious proposals to develop the land came with promises of classrooms, cultural centers, or other benefits for the community. This time the only condition is that construction must begin within five years.

A presidential library attached to a luxury hotel would be unprecedented. Yet the plan is being treated as a foregone conclusion, with all four Cabinet members signaling support. Miami’s mayor says he has seen no renderings, no plans, and no details, but still defends the process as a civic “attractant.”

What Floridians are witnessing is government in the role of developer, treating public property as a political favor. This is not about Trump. It is about how valuable assets are transferred in Florida when politics replaces markets.

If the library and hotel are such good ideas, let private bidders compete openly for the site. Let investors risk their own money. That is how we discover the best use of scarce land. Instead, ordinary Floridians see once again that the rules are different for the politically connected. The well-positioned get sweetheart deals, while everyone else pays property taxes and begs zoning boards for permission to build.

Defenders of the transfer point to the supposed economic windfalls of past presidential libraries. But these projections are guesses, and even if true they do not justify the secrecy, the favoritism, or the abandonment of process. What is lost is the principle that property and opportunity should be allocated by voluntary exchange, not by decree.

Critics across Miami are calling the deal a theft of educational opportunity. Protesters gathered at the site on Monday, and even former Miami Dade College president Eduardo Padrón called the transfer “unimaginable.” Their outrage is justified. Public land meant for education should not be quietly given away in the name of politics.

Libertarians oppose this not because of who might benefit, but because the process itself violates the rights of Floridians. Government should not be in the business of picking winners, transferring wealth, and handing out favors behind closed doors. The land belongs in the marketplace, where its value and future can be decided openly.

That is the real issue before the Cabinet tomorrow. Will Florida remain a place where markets decide, or will it continue down the path of political favoritism? The property south of the Freedom Tower is worth hundreds of millions. It does not belong in a backroom deal. It belongs in the hands of the people, through the discipline of the market.