https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15843543/diehard-Democrats-turning-against-Obama-giant-trash.html
Even diehard Democrats are turning against Obama over the $850million giant trash can they say is just a monument to his rampant egotism
It looms over the poverty-stricken South Side of Chicago like a vast meteorite that has just plunged to Earth and embedded itself in the Windy City.
Comparisons have included a mausoleum, a 'giant trash can' and even the Death Star, the grim and deadly giant space station from the Star Wars films. And with a final cost of $850million, it has a price tag to match.
The granite-clad eyesore has sparked a furious row with locals who dismiss it as no more than a monument to a US President's overweening ego and arrogance.
The statesman in question, however, is Barack Obama.
Next month will see the 'grand opening' of the Obama Presidential Center – dubbed the 'Obamalisk' by critics – his defining legacy to the American people.
The party is due to be attended by wife Michelle as she breaks off from her seemingly endless cycle of wildly lucrative speaking engagements and gives Barack the increasingly rare honour of joining him at a public event.
She was born in Chicago's predominantly black South Side and he started his political career there as a local community worker.
Opponents accused him of commandeering the area's gritty, blue collar and non-white identity, papering over his rather more rarefied roots in Hawaii on his path to becoming the first "black" US President. The Obamas haven't lived in the city since he won the 2008 election.
The Obamalisk's critics say it is already fuelling rapid gentrification by making local taxes and rents soar, so threatening to displace long-time, working class residents.
The brutalist style of the 225ft tall carbuncle has appalled architects and historians in a city that has some of the oldest and most distinctive skyscrapers ever built.
Locals are also enraged by the centre occupying 19 acres of much-loved Jackson Park, created by the landscapers who designed New York's Central Park.
Taxpayers in the state of Illinois – which sold the land to the Obama Foundation for $10 – have to stump up $199million (£148million) to pay for surrounding street and transport improvements.
Obama's Presidential Center, which will house a museum, a replica of Obama's Oval Office, a basketball court, music studio and even a toboggan run – is by far the most expensive ever built.
At the building's summit, 5ft-tall concrete letters spell out 103 words of a speech delivered by Obama in 2015.
The perception that the vast edifice is a monument to one man's rampant egotism has been fuelled by revelations from the building's architects that Obama drove them to make it ever bigger, repeatedly demanding changes as the budget soared way beyond the original $330million (£245million).
Even Democrats have started to resent the post-presidency Obamas.
The $65million (£48million) joint book deal he and Michelle signed with Penguin Random House in March 2017 was just the start.
There have since been equally lucrative contracts with internet giants Netflix (that one alone reportedly an eight-figure sum), Spotify and Audible for TV programmes, films and podcasts.
In 2023, Michelle was reportedly paid $741,000 (£551,000) for a single, hour-long speech at a Munich conference on – somewhat ironically – 'diversity and inclusion'. Her husband was paid almost as much for two speeches in Australia that year.
Now he is out of office, the Obamas no longer have to make tax returns public but their earnings are reliably estimated to total nine figures – at least $100million (£75million) – over the nine years since they left the White House.
And they've been buying one multi-million dollar home after another. The collection now includes their $8million mansion in Washington DC, a $15million sprawling beachfront mansion on the billionaires' getaway island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and an $18million beachfront house on the idyllic Hawaiian island of Oahu. They also still own their family house in Chicago.
When they're not poring over estate agent catalogues in their leisure hours, they're taking glitzy holidays with rich and famous friends – kitesurfing off Sir Richard Branson's private island in the Caribbean, sailing on music mogul David Geffen's yacht with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Hanks in Tahiti, or on Steven Spielberg's yacht in the Italian Riviera.
Kite surfing off Richard Branson's island
Barack Obama married the former Michelle Robinson in 1992 after they met as young lawyers
Michelle proudly told the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024 that her parents 'didn't aspire to be wealthy – in fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed'.
He admits that his wife 'hated' him for ten years when their children were young.
His frequent absences caused domestic friction.
Not that Mrs Obama is sitting at home – or one of their homes – waiting for the sound of him at the front door.
Her 2018 memoir Becoming sold 11.5 million copies in a year. Last week she was in Australia on yet another sell-out speaking tour promoting yet another book (her fourth), The Light We Carry.
She tells her audiences how they can find strength, purpose and hope in uncertain times. Platinum tickets cost £475 and include a photo opportunity with her.
Malia Obama, now 27, was just ten when her father took office as US president
It helps their relationship that their children have left home and the Obamas are, she acknowledged, 'back to just me and him'.
Those daughters, Malia and Sasha, were two of the youngest children to grow up in the White House – aged ten and seven when their father took office.
Malia graduated from Harvard five years ago with a degree in visual and environmental studies and is now pursuing a career in writing for TV.
Sasha graduated from University of Southern California in May 2023 with a sociology degree.
She, too, has gone into TV.
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15843543/diehard-Democrats-turning-against-Obama-giant-trash.html
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