The monument to Barack Obama’s ego ain’t looking too hot.
For starters, construction on the ugly, behemoth presidential library and museum campus, which has uprooted 19 acres in the South Side of Chicago, has been painstakingly slow since its groundbreaking in 2021. Even before then, the project was entangled in lawsuits and faced opposition from community members for years. Rent and home prices in the area had spiked since the project’s initial announcement in 2015, displacing poor residents, many of whom were black. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a free weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)
Barack and Michelle Obama attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Construction on the presidential library began last month after five years of legal battles, gentrification concerns and a federal review. pic.twitter.com/C5arKhOVZT
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 28, 2021
The cost of the project, managed by the Obama Foundation, has also reportedly skyrocketed from an original estimate of $300 million to at least $850 million. In 2017, the estimated budget clocked in at $500 million when the design was unveiled. It later increased to $700 million in 2021, due to construction costs alone.
In order to protect Chicago taxpayers from a bailout, the Obama Foundation made an agreement with the city that mandated the establishment of an endowment. It would act as a financial reserve designed to generate sufficient interest each year to fund operations without ever depleting the principal and leaving taxpayers on the hook. During the city council’s deliberations, the foundation settled on a $470 million figure around 2020.
I asked Chicago residents what Obama’s new presidential library looks like.
Number one response: “A prison”
Other answers:
– Garbage can
– a Rock
– Block of Marble
– Tardis
– Mountain
– ATC Tower
– Mausoleum
– a JailTotally Humiliating.
What do you think it looks like? pic.twitter.com/mT5kZseX09— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 20, 2025
Documents from 2021 indicated that the first-year operating costs of the library were projected to reach up to $40 million, according to Fox News. The estimate suggests that an endowment ranging between $800 million to $1 billion would be necessary to keep operations afloat without tapping into the taxpayer wallet. And, of course, there is still uncertainly about how the foundation will continue to fund the library years from now, and whether they will keep up annual revenue numbers.
The opening of the Obama presidential library has been delayed until next spring. Shucks, I’ll have to wait until then to not go. Truly, it looks like it belongs in East Berlin in the 1970s. pic.twitter.com/LPRRlAtM1Q
— Jeremy Wayne Tate (@JeremyTate41) August 27, 2025
So, the costs are surging. Outside of wealthy Democrat donors and billionaires, the sources of future revenue are dubious, at best. But the good news is there’s a safety net, right?
Wrong. Here’s the rub. The $470 million endowment the Obama Foundation was supposed to fund to protect taxpayers? So far, they have only reportedly deposited $1 million, or roughly 0.2% of what they pledged. (RELATED: Barack Obama’s Humiliation Ritual Keeps Getting Worse)
And that deposit was made in 2021. Since then … nothing.
Nothing for the taxpayer, at least. The Obama Foundation sent donations totaling $2 million to the left-wing Tides Foundation in 2022 and 2023. They also gifted longtime Obama ally Valerie Jarrett a sweet sinecure salary worth nearly $800,000 per year.
But the Obama Foundation has promised the library will open in the spring of 2026. They have promised it is fully funded. And yet, something tells me those promises are emptier than “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”
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