Opinions

A Banned In Florida Club Outrage — May 2026

Your College. Your Land. His Library. His Hotel.

Let’s be very precise about what happened here, because the details matter and the spin has already started.
On September 23, 2025, Ron DeSantis convened the Florida Cabinet and voted to hand 2.63 acres of prime downtown Miami real estate — land that belonged to Miami Dade College, a public institution funded by Florida taxpayers and tuition-paying students — directly to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. For free. No purchase price. No negotiation. No competitive process. No benefit to the college. No benefit to the students.
The Miami-Dade County property appraiser valued the parcel at $67 million in 2025. Real estate experts cited in a subsequent federal lawsuit estimate the land could sell for over $300 million on the open market, given comparable sales in the surrounding blocks. It sits on Biscayne Boulevard, steps from the Freedom Tower, facing the waterfront, across the street from the Kaseya Center arena where the Miami Heat play.

Ron DeSantis gave all of it away. In one cabinet vote. To a sitting president. Who immediately announced plans to build a hotel on it.

What They Said It Was
DeSantis and his cabinet called it an honor. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said it was a privilege. Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia called the Freedom Tower “a symbol of freedom for so many.” Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson noted that “Florida is President Trump’s home state.”

What none of them mentioned: Miami Dade College received nothing in return. No concessions. No revenue sharing. No guaranteed student access. No naming rights. No scholarships. Nothing. The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to give up a property worth tens of millions — possibly hundreds of millions — and walked away with exactly what they started with, minus one very valuable piece of real estate.

What It Actually Is
Trump has been explicit about his intentions. In his own words: “It’s going to most likely be a hotel. Could be an office, but it’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby, which is going to be a trick.”
This is not a presidential archive. This is a real estate development. Eric Trump — who is the president and a trustee of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation — unveiled AI-generated renderings in March 2026 showing a glass skyscraper with TRUMP emblazoned near the top in the family’s signature block lettering. The planned tower dwarfs every surrounding building in the rendering. The adjacent Freedom Tower — the historic Cuban refugee processing center that the site supposedly honors — appears roughly a quarter of the size of the proposed Trump monument.
Inside, according to the renderings: a golden escalator, a massive auditorium with a golden statue of Trump with his fist raised, replicas of the White House Rose Garden, and an Air Force One in the lobby. There are also plans for a hotel.
Eric Trump called it “a masterpiece, the likes of which have never been seen in Florida or really anywhere.”

None of that is a library. All of it generates revenue for the Trump family.

The Constitutional Problem
The Domestic Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution is not complicated. It prohibits states from giving financial benefits to a sitting president. The framers put it in the Constitution specifically to prevent states from using gifts to curry favor with the executive branch — to stop exactly this kind of transaction.
Florida gave the sitting president of the United States a piece of real estate worth between $67 million and $300 million, with no strings attached, while he was in office, so he could build a hotel on it.
A federal lawsuit filed May 13, 2026, in the Southern District of Florida — brought by the Constitutional Accountability Center, a Miami Dade College student named Carmen Salcedo, two nearby residents, and a nonprofit called Dunn’s Farm that had hoped to operate an urban farm on the site — argues exactly this point. The complaint names Trump, his foundation, DeSantis, the Florida Cabinet, and Miami Dade College’s board of trustees as defendants.
“The domestic emoluments clause says this president can’t get gifts from states,” said attorney Gerald Greenberg. “This is a quintessential gift from a state.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The Tax Bonus Nobody Mentioned
While Trump’s foundation plans a for-profit hotel, the property is still registered under an educational tax exemption — the same exemption it had when Miami Dade College owned it. Meaning: the Trump Library Foundation has been collecting the benefit of an educational property tax exemption on land it is actively planning to commercialize.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys calculate the avoided property taxes at over $1 million per year.

The college gave up the land. The state gave it to the foundation. And the foundation is still using the college’s tax status to avoid paying the city, county, and state the taxes a commercial developer would owe. Florida taxpayers are subsidizing Donald Trump’s hotel in three separate ways simultaneously: they gave him the land, they’re covering his taxes, and they’re defending the deal in court using the state attorney general’s office.

How DeSantis Did It
The initial vote on September 23, 2025 violated Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law. The public notice for the meeting said the board would “discuss potential real estate transactions.” It did not specify that the discussion involved giving away $67 million in public property to the president’s personal foundation.
Historian and civil rights advocate Dr. Marvin Dunn, 85, a retired professor and longtime Florida public records activist, filed the first lawsuit within days. A circuit court judge sided with Dunn and temporarily blocked the land transfer. The Third District Court of Appeal denied a request to fast-track a reversal.
Miami Dade College’s board responded to the legal challenge by scheduling a new vote — this time with proper public notice — and voted unanimously again. Same result. No benefits. No concessions. Just the land, handed over.
Dunn vowed to sue again. This time with backup: Gelber Schachter & Greenberg and the Constitutional Accountability Center filed the May 13 federal complaint. Trial in the state case has been set for August 2026.

The land remains in legal limbo. DeSantis praised the project as a boost for “education, tourism and culture.”

What This Means for Florida Students
Miami Dade College is one of the largest community colleges in the United States. It serves a predominantly working-class, first-generation student population — exactly the people Ron DeSantis claims to represent. The college had a valuable asset on one of the best blocks in Miami. That asset could have funded scholarships, facilities, programs, faculty. Instead, it was handed to the Trump family foundation so Eric Trump could build a hotel with a golden escalator.
The student named in the federal lawsuit, Carmen Salcedo, said she has an interest in her college “making decisions that benefit her and her education, rather than decisions that line the pockets of President Trump at the expense of students.”

That is not a political statement. That is the actual situation.

The Short Version
Ron DeSantis took public land worth between $67 million and $300 million from a community college serving Florida’s working families. He gave it to a sitting president who immediately announced plans to build a hotel on it. The college received nothing. The students received nothing. The neighborhood received nothing. The transaction is the subject of at least two lawsuits, one of which is headed for trial in August.

DeSantis is still calling it an honor.

Banned In Florida Club | bannedflorida.club
Facts sourced from AP, Miami Herald, CNN, The Hill, Constitutional Accountability Center, and public court records.

Let me walk you through this slowly because it is exactly as bad as it sounds.

Centene Corporation is Florida’s biggest Medicaid contractor. In 2021, they overbilled the state by $67 million. Florida negotiated a settlement — Centene would return the money to the federal and state governments. That’s taxpayer money. Medicaid money. Money intended for low-income Floridians who need healthcare.

Ten million dollars of that settlement went instead to Hope Florida Foundation. Hope Florida is a charity founded by Casey DeSantis — the governor’s wife — in 2021. It’s supposed to help needy Floridians find community resources. The year before it received this $10 million, the foundation had total revenue of $850,000. It had never seen money like this in its existence.

“Hope Florida took $10 million from a Medicaid settlement and gave it to political dark money groups. Those groups funneled it to a PAC run by DeSantis’s chief of staff to kill the marijuana legalization amendment.”

What did the Foundation do with $10 million? It gave $5 million to “Secure Florida’s Future” — a nonprofit tied to the Florida Chamber of Commerce. And $5 million to “Save Our Society From Drugs.” Both are dark money groups — meaning they don’t have to tell anyone where their money comes from or where it goes. Together, these two groups sent $8.5 million to a political action committee called “Keep Florida Clean,” which was dedicated to defeating Amendment 3 — the marijuana legalization amendment that 56% of Florida voters supported.

Who chaired Keep Florida Clean? James Uthmeier — Ron DeSantis’s chief of staff. The same man DeSantis later appointed as Florida’s Attorney General. The man now in charge of the criminal investigation that might implicate him.

A Republican state representative — Alex Andrade — led the investigation in the Florida House. He called it “a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.” He said there was “no question that these were Medicaid funds, steered by the Governor’s chief of staff through secret and clandestine actions to his own political committee.” The House investigation stalled when the DeSantis administration refused to cooperate. A criminal investigation was opened in May 2025. A grand jury began hearing testimony in October 2025. Subpoenas went out. Multiple DeSantis administration officials were questioned about conspiracy charges.

How the Money Moved

• Centene overbills Florida Medicaid by $67 million → pays it back in a settlement
• $10 million from that settlement goes to Hope Florida Foundation (Casey DeSantis’s charity)
• Hope Florida gives $5M each to two dark money nonprofits
• Those groups send $8.5M to “Keep Florida Clean” — a PAC chaired by DeSantis’s chief of staff
• Keep Florida Clean sends $10.5M to the Republican Party of Florida and $1.1M to Ron DeSantis’s own PAC
• Amendment 3 (marijuana legalization, which 56% of voters supported) fails narrowly
• Criminal investigation opened May 2025. Grand jury testimony October 2025.
• DeSantis then appoints Uthmeier — the target of the investigation — as Florida Attorney General

DeSantis’s response to all of this? He called it “pure politics” and “baseless smears.” He attacked Republican lawmakers who asked questions. He appointed the man at the center of the investigation to be the state’s top law enforcement officer. Then he showed up at a press conference and announced Hope Florida was expanding its services.

And here’s the part that should make every Florida Republican sick to their stomach: This is money that was supposed to go to sick people. Medicaid money. Money for healthcare. It went through a charity, through dark money groups, through a political committee, and ended up in Ron DeSantis’s PAC and the Republican Party of Florida — used to fight a ballot amendment that 56% of voters supported.

This is corruption. Not alleged corruption. Not “complicated” corruption. Follow-the-money, follow-the-subpoenas, follow-the-grand-jury corruption. And the man who did it is calling his accusers political operatives while appointing his implicated chief of staff to run the state’s justice system. If you are a Republican in Florida and you are okay with this — then you are as corrupt as your politicians. That’s not an insult. It’s an accounting.

Here’s something that should make your blood boil. In 2010, the people of Florida — by a massive majority — passed the Fair Districts Amendments to their state constitution. These amendments explicitly banned partisan gerrymandering. The language is clear: maps cannot be drawn to favor a political party. The voters put it in the constitution because they wanted it to stick.

Ron DeSantis doesn’t care what the voters put in the constitution.

In 2022, he vetoed the Republican legislature’s own map — which had preserved existing districts — called a special session, submitted his own map, and demanded lawmakers accept it. The map created four new Republican-leaning seats. A state judge ruled the map unconstitutional. DeSantis appealed. His hand-picked Florida Supreme Court — five of the seven justices appointed by DeSantis himself — overruled the judge and blessed the gerrymander.

“A Harvard constitutional law professor called the map ‘flagrantly unconstitutional under the Fair Districts Amendments.’ DeSantis called it fine. His court agreed with DeSantis.”

The result: Republicans went from holding 16 of Florida’s 28 congressional seats to 20. Four more seats. From one man drawing a map that a court said was illegal. And the most infuriating part? He erased a North Florida congressional district where Black voters had consistently elected their candidate of choice for three decades. Gone. One stroke of the pen. Because he could.

This week — this week, as of this writing — DeSantis announced he’s doing it again. A new gerrymander aimed at flipping four more Democratic seats before the 2026 midterms. The Florida legislature passed it. Republicans who voted against it were told they were betraying the party. A Republican state senator said she “just can’t do it” because the legal theory the map rested on had never even been tested in court. She voted no. The map passed anyway.

The Fair Districts Amendments are still in the Florida Constitution. No court has struck them down. DeSantis has simply decided they don’t apply to him. He told reporters that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling assured him the courts wouldn’t enforce the standards. Not that they were struck down. Not that they don’t apply. Just that he believes no one will stop him. And so far, he’s been right.

This is what authoritarianism looks like in practice. Not tanks in the street. Just a governor who looks at a law his own citizens passed and says “doesn’t apply to me” — and then dares someone to stop him. Florida voters banned this. Ron DeSantis did it anyway. Twice. If that doesn’t make you want to vote, donate, organize, and scream — I don’t know what will.

The legal challenges are coming. But every day this map stands, it shapes who gets elected, who holds power, and whose votes actually count in Florida. This is the issue. Not the drag shows. Not the books. This — the deliberate, systematic, unconstitutional dismantling of fair representation — is how they hold power. And they’re doing it right in front of you.

Florida has a real problem and it has nothing to do with what’s in the school library or who’s performing at a drag show. It has to do with the fact that insurance is unaffordable, housing is unaffordable, utilities are unaffordable, and healthcare is inaccessible — and the people running the state have been too busy fighting culture wars to do a single damn thing about any of it.

David Jolly gets this. He was a Republican congressman who left the party because he couldn’t stomach what it became. He’s running for governor as a Democrat in 2026 on a platform that sounds radical only because it involves actually governing: a state catastrophic fund to take hurricane coverage off the private market and reduce insurance premiums by 60 to 70 percent. Bringing in clean, renewable energy to lower utility costs. Expanding Medicaid so Floridians can see a doctor. Real stuff. Stuff that affects real people.

The Banned In Florida Club Endorses

David Jolly for Florida Governor

Democratic candidate · Primary: August 18, 2026 · General: November 3, 2026

He’s been endorsed by 60 current and former Florida Democratic officials, by Gwen Graham — daughter of the last Democratic governor Florida had — and by editorial boards who called him “a reality-based candidate.” He appeals to disaffected Republicans and independents because he actually is one. His slogan is “Believe in Florida’s Future.” He means it.

Now let’s talk about what he’s running against.

Byron Donalds is running for governor of Florida while simultaneously refusing to close his congressional campaign committee. The FEC told him the money had to go back. He said no.

Byron Donalds — Trump’s endorsed candidate — is a man whose entire political career has been a performance for a base that demands loyalty above all else. He voted to reject the certified 2020 election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania in the hours after the Capitol was attacked. He called Joe Biden “not the legitimate president” as recently as 2023. He is not a Florida-first candidate. He is a Trump-first candidate wearing a Florida suit.

But it gets more specific. Donalds has voted in Congress to lease more public lands and waters for oil drilling, to fast-track fossil fuels over clean energy, to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling, and for a bill the League of Conservation Voters literally called the “Polluters Over People Act.” His district is on the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida. The people he represents fish those waters. They vacation on those beaches. And he voted to put oil rigs in them.

He did eventually sign a letter opposing drilling near Eglin Air Force Base — but only because it interferes with military test ranges. Not because he gives a damn about Florida’s coastline. The moment there’s no military angle, he’s back to voting for drilling.

The Byron Donalds Dossier

• Voted to reject 2020 election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania — hours after the Capitol attack
• Called Joe Biden “not the legitimate president” as recently as 2023
• FEC sent his campaign a letter demanding he refund congressional donations collected after announcing his governor run. He refused.
• Voted for H.R. 1 — the “Polluters Over People Act” — opening public lands to oil drilling
• Voted to open the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling
• Voted to fast-track fossil fuel power over clean energy
• Said Black people were “doing better under Jim Crow” — then had to walk it back
• Endorsed by Donald Trump — which tells you everything about whose interests he serves

Florida has a Democratic primary on August 18, 2026. David Jolly is in it. If you are a Florida voter, a Florida resident, or someone who gives a damn what happens to a state that 22 million people call home — this is who you should be watching, talking about, and voting for.

We don’t need another politician who shows up for donors and disappears for constituents. Florida needs someone who will actually govern. Jolly is it. The Banned In Florida Club is behind him. Get loud about it.