President Donald Trump used characteristically frank language to describe former President Barack Obama’s unsightly presidential library and museum that is currently under construction in a Chicago suburb.
Trump was asked about the library in the Oval Office on Monday. “He needs help…it’s not too pretty,” Trump said to laughter.
The president went on to say that Obama insisted on “hiring women and DEI” – diversity, equity, and inclusion candidates – to build the structure, which has been beset with a series of delays and massive cost overruns.
He also pointed out that he built “a building” in Chicago – the Trump International Hotel & Tower – claiming that it went up ahead of schedule and on budget. Trump also praised the “Chicago construction workers” who he contracted with to build the structure, calling them among the best in the country.
Monday’s criticisms were not the first from Trump regarding the Obama library. In May, he described the project as “a disaster” being undertaken by “woke” construction workers.
“I mean, look, President Obama — and if he wanted help, I’d give him help because I build on time and on budget — he’s building his presidential library in Chicago. It’s a disaster,” Trump said at the time, per CBS News.
“And he said something to the effect, ‘I only want DEI, I only want woke.’ He wants woke people to build it. Well, he got woke people, and they have massive cost overruns; the job is stopped. I don’t know, it’s a disaster,” he added.
He also said the center is “millions of dollars, like many, many — I mean, really, millions of dollars over budget,” and said the problems were because Obama “wanted to be very politically correct and he didn’t use good, hard, tough, mean construction workers that I love.”
“He wanted people that, like, never did it before, and he’s got a disaster on his hands,” he said.
The Obama Presidential Center has faced substantial cost overruns, with the project’s estimated price rising from its original $300 million to more than $830 million.
Officials have attributed the increase to factors such as inflation, construction delays, and ongoing litigation.
A recent lawsuit alleges that some of the overruns stem from subcontractor inexperience, a claim disputed by the project’s engineering firm, Thornton Tomasetti.
The project is years behind schedule, though an official with the project said it is now slated to open next year, fully a decade after Obama left office. Also, according to reports, Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for around $200 million worth of new road and utility costs related to the project.
Robert McGee, owner of II in One — a company that began providing concrete and rebar services for the Obama Presidential Center in 2021 — filed a federal lawsuit in January against New York–based Thornton Tomasetti, which is responsible for the project’s structural engineering and design.
In the complaint, McGee alleges that Thornton Tomasetti altered construction standards and introduced new requirements for rebar spacing and tolerances that deviated from American Concrete Institute guidelines. He claims those changes led to “excessively rigorous and unnecessary inspections,” contributing to significant cost overruns on the $830 million project.
According to the lawsuit, McGee claims that the additional paperwork and oversight requirements severely hindered productivity and led to millions of dollars in losses.
Thornton Tomasetti, however, defended its actions in a memo filed nearly a year ago, asserting that delays stemmed from the subcontractors’ own performance issues and describing them as “questionably qualified.”
McGee contends that the firm falsely accused II in One of lacking the necessary qualifications and experience to complete the work while deeming non–minority-owned contractors fully qualified.
He is seeking reimbursement of approximately $40 million in construction costs that his company and its joint venture partner, Concrete Collective, say they covered out of pocket.
