Why even diehard Democrats are turning against Obama over the $850million giant trash can they say is just a monument to his rampant egotism

By TOM LEONARD, US CORRESPONDENT Published: 00:14, 24 May 2026 | Updated: 00:18, 24 May 2026 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, isn't – as might be expected – Donald Trump but Barack Obama, a politician not nearly so accustomed to such ugly accusations. 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. While the Obamalisk's supporters say it'll be a valuable civic centre and boost economic regeneration, others 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 – designed to resemble four hands coming together and stuffed with trendy contemporary art – has appalled architects and historians in a city that has some of the oldest and most distinctive skyscrapers ever built. Former US President Barack Obama's presidential centre is scheduled to open to the public on June 19 The centre lies in the South Side of Chicago, where Michelle Obama grew up Obama was pictured kite-surfing off Richard Branson's Necker Island after he left office following eight years as president Many 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. Although the centre has been financed by private donations, 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. Every US President is encouraged to commission a library or presidential centre as a monument to their time in office. But Obama's – which will house a museum, a replica of Obama's Oval Office, a baseball 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 about civil rights 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). But the backlash against the Obamalisk and the man it's celebrating hasn't come out of the blue. Americans – yes, even Democrats – have started to resent the post-presidency Obamas for other reasons. For the 64-year-old and his wife, 62, who famously promised 'change' for ordinary Americans, have proved all too similar to predecessors when it comes to milking a White House legacy – earning vast sums on the speaking circuit and in eye-popping media deals, which they've spent on a string of luxurious homes. 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. Some critics have labelled the brutalist structure the 'Obamalisk' Barack Obama married Michelle Robinson in 1992 after they met as young lawyers It's not that past presidents and their wives haven't behaved the same way, as they have. But many Americans expected the Obamas to be different. After all, it was Michelle who 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'. Even former fully paid-up members of the Obama fan club have expressed misgivings. John Oliver, the British-born Leftie TV comedian and host of Last Week Tonight, advised Obama on his HBO show: 'Just tone it down with the kitesurfing pictures.' Part of the antagonism from Democrats towards Obama living the high life is because they want him to do more to lead the fight against Donald Trump. Obama has admitted to being torn about stepping back into politics. Unlike older Presidents, he was hardly ready to retire when he left the White House aged 55. However, he admits his wife – who complained bitterly that he was so preoccupied with politics that she 'hated' him for ten years when their children were young – has made it clear she expects to see more of him now. Last month he admitted to New Yorker magazine that his frequent absences caused domestic friction. 'She wants to see her husband easing up and spending more time with her, enjoying what remains of our lives,' he said. Asked about her reaction to Democrat pressure on him to keep campaigning for the party, he added: 'It does create a genuine tension in our household – and it frustrates her.' Not that Mrs Obama is sitting at home – or one of their homes – waiting for the sound of him at the front door. As an enormously popular purveyor of homespun wisdom and champion of female empowerment – washed down with reminders of her lingering resentment about the sacrifices she made as First Lady – she's arguably a bigger star than he is. And while the pair still feature in lists of America's most influential 'power couples', there's dwindling evidence that they are, in public life at least, a double act. She has been very much ploughing her own furrow since they left the White House and makes no apologies for it after the years she spent in her husband's shadow. 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. According to the tour's promotional blurb, this 'global advocate' and 'one of the most iconic, inspiring and compelling women of our era' 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. Since last year, she has also presented a podcast show, IMO (an acronym for 'In My Opinion'), with her brother Craig Robinson, a basketball executive, in which they exchange platitudes and get into what are often fairly inane discussions about family life. The Obamas with their daughter Sasha - a 'spikier child', Tom Leonard writes - at a basketball game in Los Angeles Malia Obama, now 27, was just ten when her father took office as US president Barack was a guest on the show last year following a wave of speculation that they were heading for divorce after Michelle failed to join him at a string of official events, including the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter. The Obamas, who married in 1992 after meeting as young lawyers working for the same Chicago law firm, have dismissed persistent rumours that their marriage is on the rocks. Barack's appearance on her podcast gave them another chance to laugh off what she called the 'rumour mill' of their split. And yet their body language at this public outing was more like distant relatives greeting each other as he gave her the lightest peck on the cheek while she gingerly patted his back. Speaking last week on the podcast of an actress friend, Keke Palmer, Michelle described a relationship in which after 37 years together they have to work hard to keep it fresh. 'Some days we're in the house together all day, and we know we're going to have dinner together and [it's] like, "Well, don't talk to me because we got to save it for dinner",' she said. It clearly wasn't the intention but it sounded just a little desperate. When asked by Keke Palmer how she would describe her new life now, Michelle came up with the word 'freedom'. She added: 'Every choice that I make is mine.' Of course it helps 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. Their mother, who rarely misses an opportunity to grouse about those years, complained last week that she had to become a 'mama bear' in defending them from White House officials and Secret Service men who were insensitive to their needs and treated them like 'little diplomats'. The little diplomats are now 27 and 24. Having bonded over the challenge of growing up in the spotlight, they live together in Los Angeles, where they largely slip under the media radar. Although the style-conscious pair have been seen in expensive designer gear, their mother has claimed they furnished their apartment 'having poked around yard sales and shopped at a nearby Ikea, watching their budget'. It's a far cry from when they were treated to a private concert by the Jonas Brothers and a ride around Buckingham Palace in the Queen's carriage. Malia, who is reportedly the more easy-going, graduated from Harvard five years ago with a degree in visual and environmental studies and is now pursuing a career in writing for TV. Her father has proudly boasted that Malia has tried not to exploit the Obama name, writing and directing a short film that was shown at the 2024 Sundance Festival as 'Malia Ann' (using her second name as a surname). Her love life has been fairly uneventful. At Harvard, she reportedly found a British boyfriend in fellow undergraduate Rory Farquharson, a former pupil of Rugby school, but in 2022 moved on to the hipper Dawit Eklund, a record producer. That appeared to have fizzled out last year. Sasha – a spikier child who family members say is most like Michelle – graduated from University of Southern California in May 2023 with a sociology degree. She, too, has gone into TV, working in the casting department of documentary series Couples Therapy. Last year her boyfriend was reported to be Clifton Powell, a 6ft 5in former basketball star. Michelle joined the girls for a night out at a trendy restaurant in LA earlier this month but Barack – who, says Michelle, doesn't get out nearly as much as she does – wasn't with them. He can only hope the clan at least turns up for opening night of the Obamalisk – he may find that he could do with some allies in his hour of need. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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