Trump Presidential Library Faces Congressional Scrutiny Over Donations, Hotel Plans and Qatari Jet

In March, President Trump shared renderings of a 47-story tower on a donated plot in downtown Miami: golden escalators, a full-size Air Force One, and a giant statue of him with his fist raised, the pose he struck after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Soon afterward he told reporters he does not "believe in building libraries or museums" and that the building would most likely be a hotel. That is a long way from the traditional library his foundation described to the IRS last year.

The project is now headed for a harder look. Democrats won the House and the Senate on Tuesday, and from January they will be able to subpoena records and compel testimony. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, posted a two-word message to the administration after the results: "Lawyer up." Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CBS News that donors bankrolling what she called a personal vanity project will answer to a new majority, and that she will investigate the library.

Current and former advisers, speaking anonymously, say Mr. Trump is expected to give the library more attention in his final two years. One senior administration official said he recognizes that the library's development season opens now. A second said the lame-duck period will focus on what he can control, which means building. A former adviser said the library is now where the fundraising action is, with the midterms over, and called it one of the last places he can squeeze people for money.

The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, a Florida nonprofit run by his son Eric and son-in-law Michael Boulos, says in its October 2025 IRS application that it expects to raise $950 million by the end of 2027, including $600 million in 2027 alone. That far outpaces what his predecessors had raised at this stage. A first vehicle, the Presidential Library Fund, was incorporated in December 2024, days after ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation suit over George Stephanopoulos's inaccurate on-air claim about the E. Jean Carroll case. Meta agreed to pay $22 million over the suspension of Trump's accounts after January 6, X paid $10 million in a similar suit, and Paramount paid $16 million over the editing of a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris. Paramount's settlement came before its merger with Skydance, now CBS News' parent company. The first fund was dissolved in September 2025 after failing to file a required annual report; the current foundation was incorporated in May 2025.

Where the settlement money went is only partly clear. ABC says its $15 million sits in escrow at a law firm representing Trump. Paramount says it paid but not to whom. Meta says $22 million was "designated" for the library. X, citing confidentiality, would not say how much of its $10 million reached the foundation. Trump's June financial disclosure lists $56.5 million from ABC, Meta and Paramount as paid to the foundation, and $8 million from X as paid to Trump himself. Skydance points to a July 2025 statement saying the $16 million covered plaintiffs' legal fees and the rest would go to the library, with nothing to Trump personally.

Other gifts raise questions of their own. SoftBank told Congress it gave $50 million in January for an exhibit on U.S.-Japan relations. The Energy Department signed a lease on Feb. 26 with an affiliate of SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary, for land at a former uranium enrichment plant in Ohio, for what the company says will be the world's largest AI data center campus. The department says a local group first proposed the project in October 2024, before SoftBank acquired the lease rights. Chris LaCivita and James Blair, Trump's political advisers, reportedly donated fees from consulting for a pro-Russian party in Bosnia and Herzegovina after Trump threatened to cut ties. The New York Times reported Trump told allies that Alina Habba Mildon should give part of a contract worth over $50 million to the library or another Trump entity. Asked by CBS News, she reacted with a "haha," removed it seconds later, and declined comment.

The Qatari jet adds another strand. A 2025 memorandum called it an "unconditional donation," but then-Attorney General Pam Bondi concluded the gift could be conditioned on transferring the plane to the foundation by Jan. 1, 2029. Trump has said it would go to the library; Eric Trump told NBC in August that displaying it was "not the plan at the moment." A Qatari official said the plane's fate is something "the Americans need to deal with."

The foundation's own structure is murky. It told Florida regulators officers would not be paid, but told the IRS it would pay leaders, projecting $400,000 in 2025 and $1.2 million in 2027. Eric Trump is a trustee and president, and the foundation did not say whether he will be paid. It expects to file fiscal 2025 disclosures by Nov. 15. Donations also flow through PSQ Impact, run by PublicSquare, whose board includes Donald Trump Jr.; a spokesperson said he knew nothing of the page.

A lawsuit challenges Florida's gift of the 2.63-acre former college parking lot, appraised at over $67 million, though plaintiffs cite experts who put its value above $300 million. Its terms require only "components" of a library within five years, and do not bar a hotel. Watch for the first subpoenas in January, the foundation's November filing, and the court's ruling on the Miami land.