In contrast, the vulgar white trash moron squatting in his tacky gilded White Outhouse these days barely finished a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania (1968) while dodging the Vietnam war draft for the five times he was selected, his father pulling strings, paying off doctors to say that his son had bone spurs which are normally associated with aging and osteoarthritis, not when someone is 20 years old. He keeps bragging about repeatedly passing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA) which is given to older near-senile adults with memory loss and symptoms of cognitive decline. It is specifically designed to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage dementia, all of which are symptoms that Donald Dumb has displayed for years and which explains why he's the only president to be subjected to this test so many times.
So, for reasons every one can understand, the cheap, vulgar ruffian, criminal mafioso bully and demented moron Donald Dumb is deeply and obsessively envious of President Barack Obama. You see, a White Trash racist bum like Donald Dumb cannot countenance the fact that a Black African-American like Barack Obama surpasses him in brains, education and presidential performance without the need for tacky-golden-laced faux prestige .
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Trump called the Obama Presidential Center a 'disaster.' It opens soon
Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY NETWORK
Thu, June 4, 2026
Donald Trump talks often about former President Barack Obama, who left office nearly a decade ago.
Trump has spent considerable time talking about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovations as of late, saying that Obama failed to fix it. He's vowed that any upcoming deal to end the war in Iran would be different than Obama's nuclear deal. (Obama told Stephen Colbert be believed Trump said it was a bad deal because it was Obama's initiative, and it "seems to be a pattern.") [Many observers surmise that Trump's "deal" with Iran will end up either the same or worse than Obama's 2015 JCPOA].
Trump has also taken aim at the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. He posted a fabricated image on May 30 depicting a giant trash can in a parking lot under the headline, "The Obama Presidential Library." He has also called the Obama Presidential Center a "total disaster" in a Feb. 22 Truth Social post, saying it was over budget and delayed.
Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett responded to these remarks while speaking to USA TODAY at a June 3 media preview of the center.
"Judge for yourself," she said. "When our visitors come, they will see a spectacular campus...If (Trump) would like to come and visit it himself, we would welcome him and give him a tour."
The White House did not immediately comment on whether Trump planned to visit.
The center, which took about a decade and $850 million to complete, is set to open its doors to the public this month. Take a look:
The Obama Presidential Center towers over Jackson Park on May 15, 2026 in Chicago. The Center, built to commemorate the presidency of Barack Obama, sits on a 19.3 acre campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood and is scheduled to open to the public on June 19, 2026.(Scott Olson, Getty Images)
When does the Obama Presidential Center Open?
The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public on June 19, 2026.
As of June 3, tickets are sold out until the end of August.
Where is the Obama Presidential Center?
The museum and the surrounding campus are located on Chicago's South Side in Jackson Park. It is near the University of Chicago and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
The museum and the surrounding campus are located on Chicago's South Side in Jackson Park. It is near the University of Chicago and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
How much time and money went into the Obama Presidential Center?
The Obama Foundation announced in 2015 that the home of his presidential center would be in Chicago. The following year, it homed in on Jackson Park, prompting a years-long federal review process as Jackson Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Protect Our Parks also sued to attempt to stop construction on the historic place, but the lawsuits were ultimately dismissed. The center also faced concerns from some local community groups that the center's presence would price out local residents. The foundation touts investment in the community through the estimated 750,000 campus visitors annually and 300 permanent jobs. The Chicago City Council also passed affordable housing ordinances in the nearby neighborhoods.
When the Obamas finally broke ground in 2021, they estimated the project would cost $500 million. Recent numbers from the foundation put the price tag at $850 million.
The center includes the ticketed museum, a civic center with a cafe and restaurant, an athletic center, a Chicago Public Library branch, and more.
Contributing: Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Threads, Bluesky and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Obama Presidential Center, opening soon, called a 'disaster' by Trump
The Obama Foundation announced in 2015 that the home of his presidential center would be in Chicago. The following year, it homed in on Jackson Park, prompting a years-long federal review process as Jackson Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Protect Our Parks also sued to attempt to stop construction on the historic place, but the lawsuits were ultimately dismissed. The center also faced concerns from some local community groups that the center's presence would price out local residents. The foundation touts investment in the community through the estimated 750,000 campus visitors annually and 300 permanent jobs. The Chicago City Council also passed affordable housing ordinances in the nearby neighborhoods.
When the Obamas finally broke ground in 2021, they estimated the project would cost $500 million. Recent numbers from the foundation put the price tag at $850 million.
The center includes the ticketed museum, a civic center with a cafe and restaurant, an athletic center, a Chicago Public Library branch, and more.
Contributing: Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Threads, Bluesky and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Obama Presidential Center, opening soon, called a 'disaster' by Trump
=============================================
A first look inside the $850 million Obama Presidential Center
Jacqui Palumbo, CNN
Thu, June 4, 2026
At the top of the Obama Presidential Center, in its sunlit Sky Room is where you're meant to take it all in. The panoramic views are impressive: Surrounding the campus is Chicago's South and West Sides, as well as the ultramarine of Lake Michigan. But, more than that, it's a moment to pause after scaling several floors of history and Barack Obama's political legacy — not-too-distant memories for many.
Overhead, a monumental artwork by the artist Idris Khan gives the illusion of continued ascent. Words from President Obama's famed remarks in Selma, Alabama, are stamped and overlapping, sloping upwards as a swath of blue until they reach a rim of light. In Selma, and elsewhere, the former president often spoke about collectively shaping destiny. And that seems to be the final note as you climb up through the museum: the unwritten, wide-open future.
On June 19, coinciding with Juneteenth, the highly anticipated center will finally open to the public. It's been in the works for more than a decade, and cost $850 million to build — a number that kept growing, becoming by far the most expensive presidential library in history.
That's because it's not just a single building. Instead, it's an entire campus, designed by the architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and featuring 28 new, site-specific installations from some of the most important artists today. The design shifts the traditional concept of an archival presidential library into a sprawling 19.3-acre campus that offers a museum, community events, a fruit and vegetable garden, NBA regulation-sized basketball court, and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library.
The Obama Presidential Center Museum offers views of Chicago and Lake Michigan. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Idris Kahn's artwork "Sky of Hope" tops the Obama Presidential Center museum in the Sky Room, which overlooks the campus and city from the 8th floor. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
In the lead up, the former president has done a promotional gauntlet, playing Wordle with Stephen Colbert, squashing his beef with NBA star Anthony Edwards (for now); and wishing folks a Happy Star Wars day alongside Mark Hamill (who played Luke Skywalker) in front of the center — perhaps a sly response to one of its nicknames, the "Death Star." The museum's weighty granite design has also been called the "Obamalisk," sometimes disparagingly, other times fondly.
CNN got an early look at the center this week during its soft opening period, as it welcomed community members as its first guests. Already, the campus bustled with activity, even as final construction, landscaping, and art installations continued. School kids arrived on field trips and groups lined up for exhibitions, taking the escalators up past the abstract artist Julie Mehretu's vibrant, 83-foot-tall vertical window.
Tsien said it had been emotional to watch visitors fill the campus. "You have a sense when people walk in, they look up and they feel like it belongs to them, like it's theirs," she said during an interview at the center's Forum building.
Visitors on the escalator take in Julie Mehretu's painted vertical window, "Uprising of the Sun," which stretches up multiple floors. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Major transformations
Despite the colorful comparisons, Williams and Tsien based the museum's shape on a visual of four hands coming together, promoting the idea that many hands shape a place, according to the center. "I don't care about the names," Williams said. "I think we only care about what it is and what it does and what it will be in the future."
"We think of it as a 500-year building, so every decision that was made was really about making something that felt lasting and timeless," Tsien added.
Whatever you see in the Brutalist-esque building, the center is poised to become a major cultural institution and destination. Breaking with tradition, it's also run privately by the nonprofit Obama Foundation instead of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The presidential archive itself, run by NARA, will be made fully digital for the first time, which meant digitizing some 30 million pages, per the Obama Foundation. Parts of the archive are on display at the museum.
The center has been nicknamed the "Obamalisk" because of its monolithic form. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
But four hands joining together was one of the actual references for the shape of the museum's design. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Not all of these changes — nor the price tag — have been embraced. There have been ongoing concerns about its impact on gentrification on the South Side, and the location itself was in dispute as well. It is embedded within the city's historic Jackson Park, a decision that was met with legal battles as an environmental group sued the City of Chicago for allowing a private project to be built on public land. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
Though the center added a total of 3.7 acres to the park, parts of it also fell victim to the construction, including the removal of hundreds of trees and its historic Women's Garden from 1937, which was demolished but has been reimagined for the new campus. In a presentation at the center on Wednesday, Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett emphasized the outdoor recreational opportunities they've offered from the start, with an athletic field built before the main plazas and buildings, as well as the gardens and other green spaces (including a sledding hill) that they've cultivated since.
"We've had thousands of community meetings to ensure that this campus was going to blend into the urban fabric, that the people who live proximate to this center would feel the sense of ownership and participate with us in developing the plans for it," she said.
Markers of the Obama era
Inside the museum, there are exhibitions dedicated to the former president's political legacy, the former first lady's public initiatives, and historical movements, such as Civil Rights and Women's Suffrage, that shaped them both. Displays show campaign ephemera and memorabilia, from Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster to children's drawings. A video that follows the grassroots efforts of the 2008 election cycle counts down to the transformative political moment with campaign trail footage capturing the efforts of volunteers.
But visitors will also see how the Obamas influenced design, style and culture. That includes some of Michelle Obama's iconic looks, such as the greenish-gold coat and dress designed for her by the late Isabel Toledo on Inauguration Day in 2009, and the gown she wore designed by Michelle Smith of the label Milly as she sat for Amy Sherald's painting in the National Portrait Gallery. (Not included was the former president's equally iconic tan suit, which Jarrett said he gave away).
A display of some of First Lady Michelle Obama's iconic looks on the 4th floor of the museum. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
President Obama visiting the walk-in replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during his administration. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
There's also a full-scale replica of the Oval Office where visitors can sit at the desk. While Obama is not the first to feature a replica of this kind in a presidential library, with George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter among others following the tradition, it does stand out at a time when today's Oval Office has dramatically shifted in taste and style. It's gone from understated to overgilded during the Trump presidency.
When the room was still under construction, the former White House interior designer Michael Smith got a teary-eyed first glimpse of it in March, in a video posted by the Obama Foundation.
"I did not think that would be emotional," he said, pausing to take it in.
Despite the colorful comparisons, Williams and Tsien based the museum's shape on a visual of four hands coming together, promoting the idea that many hands shape a place, according to the center. "I don't care about the names," Williams said. "I think we only care about what it is and what it does and what it will be in the future."
"We think of it as a 500-year building, so every decision that was made was really about making something that felt lasting and timeless," Tsien added.
Whatever you see in the Brutalist-esque building, the center is poised to become a major cultural institution and destination. Breaking with tradition, it's also run privately by the nonprofit Obama Foundation instead of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The presidential archive itself, run by NARA, will be made fully digital for the first time, which meant digitizing some 30 million pages, per the Obama Foundation. Parts of the archive are on display at the museum.
The center has been nicknamed the "Obamalisk" because of its monolithic form. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
But four hands joining together was one of the actual references for the shape of the museum's design. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Not all of these changes — nor the price tag — have been embraced. There have been ongoing concerns about its impact on gentrification on the South Side, and the location itself was in dispute as well. It is embedded within the city's historic Jackson Park, a decision that was met with legal battles as an environmental group sued the City of Chicago for allowing a private project to be built on public land. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
Though the center added a total of 3.7 acres to the park, parts of it also fell victim to the construction, including the removal of hundreds of trees and its historic Women's Garden from 1937, which was demolished but has been reimagined for the new campus. In a presentation at the center on Wednesday, Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett emphasized the outdoor recreational opportunities they've offered from the start, with an athletic field built before the main plazas and buildings, as well as the gardens and other green spaces (including a sledding hill) that they've cultivated since.
"We've had thousands of community meetings to ensure that this campus was going to blend into the urban fabric, that the people who live proximate to this center would feel the sense of ownership and participate with us in developing the plans for it," she said.
Markers of the Obama era
Inside the museum, there are exhibitions dedicated to the former president's political legacy, the former first lady's public initiatives, and historical movements, such as Civil Rights and Women's Suffrage, that shaped them both. Displays show campaign ephemera and memorabilia, from Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster to children's drawings. A video that follows the grassroots efforts of the 2008 election cycle counts down to the transformative political moment with campaign trail footage capturing the efforts of volunteers.
But visitors will also see how the Obamas influenced design, style and culture. That includes some of Michelle Obama's iconic looks, such as the greenish-gold coat and dress designed for her by the late Isabel Toledo on Inauguration Day in 2009, and the gown she wore designed by Michelle Smith of the label Milly as she sat for Amy Sherald's painting in the National Portrait Gallery. (Not included was the former president's equally iconic tan suit, which Jarrett said he gave away).
A display of some of First Lady Michelle Obama's iconic looks on the 4th floor of the museum. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
President Obama visiting the walk-in replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during his administration. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
There's also a full-scale replica of the Oval Office where visitors can sit at the desk. While Obama is not the first to feature a replica of this kind in a presidential library, with George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter among others following the tradition, it does stand out at a time when today's Oval Office has dramatically shifted in taste and style. It's gone from understated to overgilded during the Trump presidency.
When the room was still under construction, the former White House interior designer Michael Smith got a teary-eyed first glimpse of it in March, in a video posted by the Obama Foundation.
"I did not think that would be emotional," he said, pausing to take it in.
Ambitious art everywhere
Across the campus, 30 artists have created an array of site-specific permanent works on a scale that would even be challenging for a leading contemporary art institution.
Curated by the former Arts in Embassies deputy director Virginia Shore, the collection brings both leading and lesser-known contemporary artists in conversation with each other, many with deep connections to Chicago. Numerous works are on a grand scale, including Mark Bradford's enormous tactile painting of the city, Nick Cave and Marie Watt's nearly two-story beaded and jingle-adorned tapestry; and Martin Puryear's arcing outdoor sculpture paying tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
"City of the Big Shoulders" by Mark Bradford is one of the most prominent works in the museum, displaying a vibrant map of Chicago. But it also examines some of the inequitable practices, such as redlining, that have harmed the city. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Others are more serendipitous encounters, such as Richard Hunt's sculpture of a bird taking flight from a book in a quiet courtyard by the library, or a mosaic by Rashid Johnson of the center's Teaching Kitchen, next to a fruit and vegetable garden.
The artist Theaster Gates, who has paid tribute to Black life and Black beauty in the center's Forum building with a frieze of archival images from Ebony and Jet magazines, is also a neighbor to the center with his cultural revitalization projects through the Rebuild Foundation. In an exclusive interview late last year, he told CNN: "I hope that when people come to the center they come with an open heart about the future of democracy, collective imagining, collective storytelling and collective belief."
The artist Theaster Gates displays archival images of Black beauty and life in the Forum building, where visitors will gather for free programs. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Together, the artists "really help to tell a story about community, about convening, about the power of art to activate and energize people," said the museum's director, Louise Bernard.
"This has been an opportunity for them to really lift up a sense of hope that is embedded in their work, and so we see pieces that are truly captivating in their sensibility," she added. "They are about the power and place of Chicago. They're about the idea of different voices and practices coming together. They're about memory and place and the power of color to transport people."
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Across the campus, 30 artists have created an array of site-specific permanent works on a scale that would even be challenging for a leading contemporary art institution.
Curated by the former Arts in Embassies deputy director Virginia Shore, the collection brings both leading and lesser-known contemporary artists in conversation with each other, many with deep connections to Chicago. Numerous works are on a grand scale, including Mark Bradford's enormous tactile painting of the city, Nick Cave and Marie Watt's nearly two-story beaded and jingle-adorned tapestry; and Martin Puryear's arcing outdoor sculpture paying tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
"City of the Big Shoulders" by Mark Bradford is one of the most prominent works in the museum, displaying a vibrant map of Chicago. But it also examines some of the inequitable practices, such as redlining, that have harmed the city. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Others are more serendipitous encounters, such as Richard Hunt's sculpture of a bird taking flight from a book in a quiet courtyard by the library, or a mosaic by Rashid Johnson of the center's Teaching Kitchen, next to a fruit and vegetable garden.
The artist Theaster Gates, who has paid tribute to Black life and Black beauty in the center's Forum building with a frieze of archival images from Ebony and Jet magazines, is also a neighbor to the center with his cultural revitalization projects through the Rebuild Foundation. In an exclusive interview late last year, he told CNN: "I hope that when people come to the center they come with an open heart about the future of democracy, collective imagining, collective storytelling and collective belief."
The artist Theaster Gates displays archival images of Black beauty and life in the Forum building, where visitors will gather for free programs. - Courtesy The Obama Foundation
Together, the artists "really help to tell a story about community, about convening, about the power of art to activate and energize people," said the museum's director, Louise Bernard.
"This has been an opportunity for them to really lift up a sense of hope that is embedded in their work, and so we see pieces that are truly captivating in their sensibility," she added. "They are about the power and place of Chicago. They're about the idea of different voices and practices coming together. They're about memory and place and the power of color to transport people."
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
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