Donald Trump has told reporters he does not "believe in building libraries or museums" and that his presidential library is "most likely going to be a hotel." His foundation has told the IRS it expects to raise $950 million for the thing by the end of 2027. Democrats just won both chambers of Congress, and they have subpoena power in January.
A 47-Story Tower With a Golden Escalator
Let's start with the renderings, because they deserve their own moment. In March, Trump shared images of a 47-story tower on a donated plot in downtown Miami. It features golden escalators, a full-size Air Force One, and a giant statue of Trump raising his fist, the pose he struck after surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
That is not a library. That is a Bond villain's timeshare. And then Trump told reporters he doesn't believe in libraries or museums at all, and that the building is probably going to be a hotel, which is at least the first honest thing anyone has said about this project.
Here's the problem. The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation described a traditional library to the IRS last year. So the paperwork says one thing, the president says another, and the money keeps rolling in regardless. Nobody has explained what exactly these donors are buying, though the answer seems fairly obvious.
Nearly a Billion Dollars and No Clear Product
The foundation is a Florida nonprofit run by Eric Trump and Michael Boulos, the president's son and son-in-law. Per its October 2025 IRS application, it expects to raise $950 million by the end of 2027, including $600 million in 2027 alone. That far outpaces what any of Trump's predecessors had raised at this stage.
Tens of millions have already arrived from media and tech companies that settled lawsuits with him. Read that sentence again. Companies that faced legal fights with the president, settled those fights, and then sent money to his library. Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe it's a thank-you note with a lot of zeros.
Donations also flow through a payment processing company that has Donald Trump Jr. on its board. So the family runs the foundation, the family sits on the payment processor, and the family will presumably oversee the hotel. It's vertical integration, but for grift.
Pay Up or Else, Apparently
The recent donations are where this gets truly ugly. After Trump threatened to cut ties with his top political advisers Chris LaCivita and James Blair over their consulting work for a pro-Russian party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the two men donated their fees from that work to the library, The New York Post reported.
A week later, The New York Times reported that Trump told aides and allies that his former personal lawyer, Alina Habba Mildon, should donate part of a contract worth more than $50 million to his library or another Trump-related entity. That contract was with a company tied to the family of a Venezuelan businessman Trump pardoned in January.
So a pardon, then a contract, then a suggestion that the contract holder tithe to the boss. When CBS News asked Habba Mildon by text whether she planned to donate, she responded with a "haha" reaction. Then she removed it seconds later and declined to comment. The haha, as they say, was the confession.
The Last Place to Squeeze
A former Trump adviser told CBS News that with the midterms over and donors already tapped for the America 250 celebrations and the White House ballroom, the library is where the fundraising action is. "The library is one of the last few places he can squeeze people for money," the adviser said. "That's what a businessman does. He just creates opportunities."
Note the word "squeeze." That's not a donor relations professional describing a grateful public. That's a former insider describing a shakedown with a nice brand name. MAGA Inc. started September with more than $400 million to spend on the midterms, and its December filing will show how much of that is left.
A senior administration official put it even more plainly: "He undoubtedly recognizes that the library development season opens now, and he will go for it." Another said that during this lame-duck period, Trump will focus on "all things he can control, which means: Building." Two years of building, funded by people who need something from him.
The Qatari Jet Problem
Then there's the plane. Qatar gave the U.S. a luxury Boeing 747, now in use as Air Force One, and Trump has said it would go to the library. The memorandum of understanding signed in 2025 by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatar's Minister of State for Defense Affairs Soud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani called it an "unconditional donation."
Unconditional, except then-Attorney General Pam Bondi concluded the gift could be conditioned on transferring the plane to the library foundation by Jan. 1, 2029, about three weeks before Trump leaves office. A donation with a condition attached is just called a gift with strings, and the strings run directly to Trump's personal foundation.
Eric Trump and the White House have since said the plan isn't final. In August, Eric told NBC News that displaying the plane was "not the plan at the moment." A Qatari official, asked about it, shrugged: what happens to the plane after Trump leaves is "something the Americans need to deal with." Cool. Great. Very reassuring from the country that gave a sitting president a 747.
Lawyer Up
Democrats swept the House and Senate on Tuesday, and starting in January they can subpoena records and compel testimony. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, issued a two-word warning on X: "Lawyer up."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CBS News that "giant corporations and foreign governments should not be able to buy influence in Washington with donations to the president's library," and that she will be investigating. "Any wrongdoing will be held accountable," she said.
The White House referred questions to the foundation, which did not respond to requests for comment. White House spokesman Davis Ingle offered a statement calling the library "a living testament to the indelible impact President Trump has made on America and its people." It did not mention the hotel.
The Dingo Take
The White House says this will be "one of the most magnificent buildings in the world." The president says it's probably a hotel. The IRS filing says it's a library. The donors seem to think it's a protection racket with a gift shop. Pick one, because they can't all be true, and the money is moving as if nobody has to decide.
Look at what the facts actually show. Companies that settled with Trump wrote checks. Advisers who got threatened wrote checks. A lawyer with a $50 million contract got told to write a check, and her response was a "haha" she immediately deleted. The foundation is run by his son and son-in-law, the payment processor has his other son on the board, and a donated Qatari jet may be headed to the family nonprofit. This is not a library. It's a toll booth on the road to the Oval Office, and the president is calling it a legacy.
Now Congress flips, and the people who bankrolled this are about to find out that subpoenas are not optional. Good. Every dollar, every donor, every conversation about "donating part of a contract" should be dragged into a hearing room. If it's all legitimate, the foundation has nothing to fear. If it isn't, then Trump's only museum will be a very expensive exhibit on what a shakedown looks like when you gold-plate it.
Comments