President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday reportedly sharply criticized the design and management of former President Barack Obama’s presidential library, dismissing the nearly $850 million project as “not too pretty” and emblematic of government waste under the Obama era.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump was asked by a reporter about the Obama Presidential Center, currently under construction on Chicago’s South Side. The project—marked by years of delays, budget overruns, and neighborhood disputes—has drawn scrutiny not only for its cost but also for its unusual design, which some have likened to a towering stone obelisk.
“It’s not too pretty,” Trump said, adding that Obama had prioritized “only women and DEI to build it. Well? That’s what they got.” The president’s remark appeared to reference reports that the Obama Foundation had emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusion benchmarks in its hiring and contracting decisions.
Trump contrasted the Obama project with his own record as a developer in the same city, touting the construction of the 98-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago.
“I built a great building in Chicago, as you know—a big, beautiful building, one of the tallest in the country—and we got it built very quickly, very well, and we used the construction workers of Chicago,” Trump said. “They’re great workers. They’re great construction people. And I suggest that you get them involved.”
The former president turned president continued, “But they’re hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, and I think it stopped. I’m reading these terrible stories. But that’s the way our country was run under President Obama, too. Nobody knew it.”
The Obama Presidential Center, nicknamed the “Obamalisk” by critics, is a 225-foot-tall granite tower that will serve as both a monument and a community hub. The site is planned to include a library, a museum, and even a full-sized basketball court—a nod to Obama’s well-known love of the game.
However, unlike previous presidential libraries, Obama’s will not contain the physical records of his administration. In a controversial move, those documents will be stored at a separate National Archives facility, while only digital copies will be accessible at the Chicago site.
Historians have expressed unease over the arrangement. Some worry that moving the official records off-site limits public access and undermines the traditional role of presidential libraries as repositories of unfiltered history.
Others have raised alarms that research oversight will be handled not by the National Archives but by the Obama Foundation itself, whose offices will occupy space inside the same building.
“It’s not just about aesthetics,” one Chicago historian told local media. “It’s about accountability—who controls the story of the Obama presidency.”
Critics say the project’s ballooning costs, environmental disputes, and management structure reflect the same bureaucratic inefficiencies that plagued Obama’s tenure.
For Trump, the library’s struggles serve as a metaphor for a broader political critique. “That’s what happens when you care more about image than results,” he said, gesturing toward his own record as a builder who prizes efficiency and craftsmanship.
While construction continues—at least for now—the Obama Presidential Center has become a lightning rod in Chicago’s civic life, a monument not just to a presidency but to the ongoing debate over legacy, leadership, and the price of politics.
[READ MORE: DeSantis Calls for Overhaul of Health Coverage for Americans Under 50]
