A new extravagance from the American president. At the end of March, a rendering video presented his “Trump Presidential Library” (Miami). The video, generated by artificial intelligence, aligns generic textures, standardized crowds and overly smooth perspectives, like a promotional clip.
In the center, a 47-story glass and gold tower, in reference to his status as 47th president, topped with a tricolor spike, with golden statues, a monumental escalator and a plane inspired by Air Force One in the lobby. The whole thing has an ostentatious aesthetic, between a ballroom, a reconstituted Oval Office and military iconography. Design credit goes to the Miami-based agency Bermello Ajamil & Partners.
The targeted plot covers approximately 10,640 m². It adjoins the Freedom Tower, a former reception center for Cuban refugees between 1962 and 1974, now a National Historic Landmark. Estimated at $67 million (57 million euros), it belonged to Miami Dade College. Its board of directors voted in September 2025 to transfer it to the State of Florida, before its transfer to the Trump foundation. Legal action is being taken under the Sunshine Law, which governs the transparency of public decisions. The applicants consider that the exact nature of the operation, assimilated to a virtual donation of public land to a private foundation, would not have been clearly explained.
Central Miami is already caught in a race for height. The Waldorf Astoria Miami must reach approximately 320 meters for around a hundred floors. Okan Tower is announced to be around 275 meters for nearly seventy levels. Budgets frequently exceed $300 million (€259 million). In this context, fifty floors do not constitute a technical feat, but a brand gesture: inscribing the name Trump in the skyline, providing a high point which dominates the Freedom Tower and its 17 floors.
On the economic front, those close to Trump speak of financing through donations, supplemented by funds from settlements of disputes with large digital platforms, which has already earned the project insistent questions from Democratic elected officials on the exact origin of the flows. According to the newspaper Miami Heraldthe Trump foundation aims to raise nearly a billion dollars (860 million euros) in donations. It collected around 50 million (43 million euros) in 2025, aims for 300 million (258 million euros) in 2026 and 600 million (516 million euros) in 2027.
By comparison, Ronald Reagan’s library cost around $57 million (49 million euros), Bill Clinton’s around $165 million (142 million euros), Barack Obama’s exceeds $600 million (516 million euros).
