WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s staff is already searching for places for his presidential library, and Florida could also be a prime contender.
A Florida legislator mentioned Monday that the state has a “excessive probability” of getting its first presidential library.
Presidential libraries are vital for post-administration historic archives depicting supplies from a former president’s time period. They require years of planning and do not use federal funding.
Right here are some things to find out about a possible Trump presidential library:
A Florida invoice is making an attempt to set laws for it
The state Senate Guidelines Committee on Wednesday unanimously backed Sen. Jason Brodeur’s invoice that he mentioned would “forestall any municipality or county from imposing frivolous obstacles to the institution of a presidential library throughout the state.”
Brodeur mentioned different states that constructed presidential libraries had development roadmaps created to observe state and native legal guidelines, and Florida would want the identical. He additionally mentioned all former presidents are welcome to place a presidential library in Florida, not simply Trump.
“I anticipate that this can be a fairly common attraction. It’s any person who’s seemingly even essentially the most well-known developer on the planet proper now,” he mentioned.
The place would it not be?
Brodeur’s invoice comes as Trump’s staff is taking a look at a number of South Florida universities — together with Florida Atlantic College and Florida Worldwide College — as potential spots for a presidential library.
A secretary on the FAU president’s workplace mentioned she had not heard of any plans for a presidential library and declined to remark additional. Spokespeople for FAU and FIU, and the White Home press workplace did not instantly reply to messages about potential plans for a presidential library.
Historically, such libraries are constructed within the state the place a president was born or grew up. Trump, although, was born in New York, which voted towards him in three straight presidential elections and which made him the primary former president to be convicted of felonies final yr.
Trump now primarily lives in Florida, and he is crammed his administration’s ranks with politicians and others from the Sunshine State.
The nitty gritty of a presidential library
Democrats raised considerations in committee hearings about whether or not native residents would bear the prices of the library’s development. Brodeur mentioned all prices of constructing the library, together with the planning prices, would fall to the president and library archives.
In December, ABC Information agreed to pay $15 million towards a Trump presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit. Within the settlement, ABC Information described the cost as a “charitable contribution” to an escrow account being managed by Trump’s legal professional.
That is would quantity to a small fraction of the general price of constructing the library. For instance, former President Barack Obama’s library in Chicago was estimated to price $830 million as of 2021.
What would a Trump presidential library home?
Little is thought about what can be in a Trump presidential library, however supplies in these libraries often embrace paperwork, artifacts or objects vital to a president’s administration.
Earlier this month, the Justice Division returned the packing containers coming from the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago dwelling in 2022 for categorized paperwork. Trump mentioned in a Reality Social submit that these packing containers have been being despatched to Florida, the place they “will sometime be a part of the Trump Presidential Library.”
