The Trump Organization is involved in developing the Trump presidential library, according to a post on X from Eric Trump, which was reposted by the president’s namesake company. Eric Trump is both executive vice president at the Trump Organization—the company that President Trump himself still owns and profits from in office—and a trustee of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, which is registered as a nonprofit in Florida. His involvement in the charity, while he and his family appear poised to profit from its development, raises legal concerns—and adds to a growing list of questions about the library’s function and funding, which is coming from corporations and other wealthy donors seeking to enter and remain in the Trump administration’s good graces. 

On March 30, Eric Trump tweeted a “first look” video rendering of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Museum on X, writing, “Over the past six months, I have poured my heart and soul into this project with my incredible team at [the Trump Organization].” The Trump Organization reposted the message praising “an amazing developer,” between posts promoting its Miami and DC-area golf courses. President Trump posted the video on Truth Social, too.

The next day Trump told reporters, “I don’t believe in building libraries or museums” and that the building was “most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.”

Trump defied anti-corruption norms by continuing to own and profit from his namesake development company when he took office in 2017, resulting in thousands of conflicts of interest. This term, that relationship is less regulated and more conflicted. The Trump family profiting from the development of Trump’s presidential library—or hotel—adds yet another avenue for influence-seeking and corruption. 

It’s far from the only concern. 

How can a Trump library/hotel be a nonprofit?

The decision to make Trump’s presidential library a hotel raises several questions, including about how it could legally operate as a nonprofit. 

Every president’s library thus far has had an associated nonprofit, which funds the development and then assists with events and fundraising after the building is transferred to the federal government to be operated by the National Archives. All presidential library foundations are subject to the Internal Revenue Code which prohibits the foundation from being used to benefit “any person having a personal and private interest in the organizations’ activities.” 

The Trump library foundation’s articles of incorporation also state that it “is organized exclusively for charitable, educational, and historical purposes, specifically to steward, preserve, and celebrate the legacy and historical record of President Donald J. Trump and his presidency” and will not “allow any part of its net earnings or assets to inure to the benefit of any private shareholder, Trustee, officer, director, or individual, or engage in any transactions resulting in private benefit or private inurement.” 

The Trump Organization’s apparent development of the library/hotel leaves unclear how the library foundation could or would comply with those rules, especially as Eric Trump serves as an Executive VP at the Trump Organization and as a trustee of the foundation. 

Does the Trump family have a good track record with charities?

Eric Trump shut down his foundation in 2016 amid concerns that it was being used to sell access to his father. In 2017, Forbes reported that Eric’s charity was funnelling money into the family company at a rate golf charity experts said defied “any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament,” despite claims to the contrary. The Trump family was also forced to shut down the Trump Foundation in 2018 after the New York attorney general accused it of a “shocking pattern of illegality,” including using its funds to benefit Trump’s businesses and to win political favor. In 2019, as a sitting president, President Trump was ordered by the court to pay $2 million to a handful of charities as a fine.

Are there other rules for presidential libraries?

Presidential libraries are subject to the Presidential Libraries Act, which mandates congressional approval on funding before construction can start and limits the size of presidential libraries to 70,000 square feet unless the foundation provides extra funding. 

A 47-story skyscraper (if the entire building is considered a “library”) would likely exceed that guideline many times over and would therefore need to be more heavily subsidized by the foundation’s private funding. The foundation backing the development is planning to raise nearly a billion dollars, according to a document filed with the IRS. 

What happened to settlement funds?

Details of the library project’s fundraising have raised questions. Large corporations and other special interests have pledged contributions to Trump’s library fund, with some pledging millions for the chance to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Money left over from Trump’s inauguration was also reportedly going to be transferred to the library. 

It is unclear what happened to some of that funding. Meta, ABC News, X and Paramount all reportedly pledged multimillion dollar contributions to Trump’s presidential library in order to settle lawsuits President Trump brought against the companies for as much as $63 million. But late last year, a fund created to support the library development was dissolved, without ever providing any information about the flow of money into its accounts, how that money was spent and whether it was transferred to the new foundation. 

Will there be presidential records for the presidential library?

There are also questions about the purpose of the library/hotel given the Trump administration’s new loosened policy on preservation of presidential records, which presidential libraries are designed to store and showcase.

Presidential libraries are traditionally a “facility to house the archival records of a presidency of the United States.” The National Archives is responsible for making the records available to the public five years after the president leaves office, as mandated in the Presidential Records Act of 1978. 

The Trump administration recently stopped complying with the PRA, relying on an opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel claiming that the law is unconstitutional. This new illegal policy of noncompliance makes records preservation largely optional and raises questions about what records will remain for the “library.” 

What about the Qatari jet?

As if we needed more reasons to be concerned, about the library/hotel, Trump’s plan to accept a jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One and then showcase in the building could violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Are there other constitutional concerns?

A group of Miami residents sued over the decision to use the land donated by the state of Florida as a hotel under the Domestic Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, arguing that it would direct unconstitutional profits to Trump. 

The plan to use a company the president owns and profits from to construct a library/hotel that’s funded by a charity run by the same son who runs that company to display a Qatari jet—apparently instead of building a library that could house records that may now be destroyed anyway—is an ethics disaster. 

Read More in Investigations