Barack Obama spent eight years lecturing Americans about protecting the environment.
Now his hypocrisy is on full display for the entire country to see.
And Barack Obama turned red with rage after this awful blunder was exposed.
Obama demolished a national treasure to build monument to himself
Former President Barack Obama broke ground on his Presidential Center in 2021 in Chicago's historic Jackson Park.
The $850 million project — derisively dubbed "The Obamalisk" by furious locals — sacrificed 20 acres of protected and landmarked parkland designed by legendary architect Frederick Law Olmsted for the 1893 World's Fair.¹
"Obama, of all people, should not be building a palace for himself, a fortress in the middle of a public park. It's just contrary to what I thought he believed in," renowned Chicago architect Grahm Balkany told the New York Post.²
University of Chicago art historian W.J.T. Mitchell called the hulking 240-foot concrete tower "a cenotaph, a tombstone, a crusader fortress in brutalist style."
"It's not a beautiful building. Its monumentality violates the spirit of the democratic urban park," Mitchell said.³
The environmental destruction was staggering.
Obama's construction crews clearcut nearly 1,000 century-old trees from the historic park.
"The most atrocious thing was when they started clearcutting a thousand, healthy, century-old trees. I was there to document it. It struck many people as an environmental disaster," Mitchell told the Post.⁴
The Obama Foundation bulldozed Jackson Park's Women's Garden — a beloved local gathering spot — to create a staging area for earth movers.
That garden commemorated architect Sophia Hayden, who at age 21 became the first woman to design a major structure for a World's Fair in 1893.
Her pioneering achievement for women's rights was erased so Obama could build his monument.
Obama secured public land for just $10
The land grab was even more outrageous than the environmental destruction.
Obama made Chicago compete against New York and Hawaii to host his center — then extracted sweetheart terms from the city.
The Obama Foundation acquired the public parkland through a 99-year "land use agreement" that cost Obama just $10, according to University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein.⁵
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel — who served as Obama's White House chief of staff — arranged the deal.
"This was an administration that many people in Chicago supported and thought was really revolutionary. And then to see that same administration take these 20 acres from the public was very disturbing," Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago told the Post.⁶
Obama hired a New York architectural firm to design the building — a slap in the face to Chicago's proud architectural community.
The former president even nagged his architects to make the tower taller and inundated them with his own rough sketches.
"Vanity drove the structure," Epstein said.⁷
The financial disaster keeps getting worse
The project has been plagued by delays, lawsuits, and exploding costs.
The original $300 million budget has ballooned to $850 million.
The opening date has been pushed back repeatedly and now won't happen until Spring 2026.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky each gave $100 million to the Obama library in 2022.
But fundraising collapsed by more than 50% in 2023, dropping to just $129 million.⁸
"He's arrogant," one major donor told reporters. "He didn't help others when they were trying to fundraise and so they're not going to look out for the Obamas now."⁹
Donors are furious about more than $27 million in wages paid in 2023, including a staggering $740,000 salary for Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett.¹⁰
A racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a Black-owned construction firm added to the controversy.
Robert McGee's company II in One alleged the lead engineering firm subjected them to "baseless criticism and defamatory and discriminatory accusations."¹¹
Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions more to reroute roads around the center.
And the Obama Foundation promised to create a $470 million endowment to protect taxpayers if the project fails.
But new tax filings show the foundation has deposited only $1 million into that fund — and hasn't added anything in years.¹²
"They put a million dollars into a $400 million endowment, so it's endowed. That gets you in jail as a securities matter," Epstein said. "An endowment means that you have the money in hand. But they have nothing."¹³
Obama's legacy crumbles
The contrast with other former presidents couldn't be more stark.
"I often think of the contrast with Jimmy Carter, as an ex-president. He stayed in the same house in Plains, Georgia and engaged in direct action programs in Africa, all sorts of philanthropic enterprises," Mitchell said.¹⁴
"He didn't focus on building monuments or building fancy houses in Hawaii and Martha's Vineyard, so he could vacation all over the place."
Obama spent eight years posturing as an environmental champion and champion of the little guy.
Now he's destroyed a national landmark, bulldozed 1,000 trees, erased women's history, and stuck Chicago taxpayers with a bill for hundreds of millions while paying his cronies three-quarters of a million dollars a year.
The man who promised hope and change delivered hubris and destruction.
That's Barack Obama's real legacy — and it's carved in concrete on 20 acres of stolen public land.
¹ Chadwick Moore, "Barack Obama accused of destroying national landmark to build brutalist monument — to himself," New York Post, November 12, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Lynn Sweet, "Obama Foundation fundraising dipped in 2023, after record haul in 2022," Chicago Sun-Times, September 4, 2024.
⁹ "Obamas Lose Major Donors as Legal Troubles Mount," Daily Fetched, February 6, 2025.
¹⁰ Sweet, op. cit.
¹¹ A.D. Quig, "Obama Presidential Center subcontractor sues over cost overruns, alleges discrimination," Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2025.
¹² "Obama Presidential Center deposits just $1M into $470M reserve fund aimed to protect taxpayers," Fox News, September 30, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Moore, op. cit.
