Obama announces presidential center dedication, excludes invitation to Trump
The Obama Presidential Center, a large community-focused complex on Chicago’s South Side in Jackson Park, will be dedicated with Juneteenth weekend celebrations and events that mark America’s semiquincentennial, attended by living presidents while Donald Trump is not invited. The center, an $850 million project, blends a museum tower with Obama foundation offices, a Chicago Public Library branch, and a Nike-backed athletic facility, plus extensive public spaces, a restaurant, an auditorium, a park, wetlands, a vegetable garden, and children’s play areas on a 19.3-acre campus; tickets for the museum go on sale in May, while all other areas will be free to enter. The project has endured years of delays and cost growth from an initial estimate of about $330 million, and it is positioned as a community hub rather than a traditional presidential library. Barack and Michelle Obama emphasize the center’s mission of public service and civic leadership, with Michelle describing it as a way to give back to the community and to launch the next generation of leaders; the museum’s message will include the inscription “You are America,” inspired by a Selma speech.
Obama announces presidential center dedication, excludes invitation to Trump
Former President Barack Obama announced on Saturday the dedication of his presidential center, with community-wide celebrations spanning the Juneteenth weekend and attendance by living presidents, though notably excluding President Donald Trump.
The Obama Foundation shared that the community-based center located on the South Side of Chicago, in the city’s Jackson Park neighborhood, will be held on June 18, featuring a weekend of celebrations for Juneteenth and America as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial.
Celebratory events will feature “legendary performances by global icons and powerful remarks from today’s most prominent voices,” the foundation said in a press release obtained by PEOPLE.
The exclusion of President Donald Trump, confirmed by the outlet, comes as the guest list includes all living presidents, including former President George W. Bush. The ceremony is scheduled a few days after a UFC event held at the White House, which coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday.
Saturday’s news follows criticism from Trump last May about construction delays in the project, accusing Obama of only selecting “woke people to build” the library.
The $850 million project includes a 235-foot tower with a museum, Obama Foundation offices, and a branch of the Chicago Public Library. Outside, the Obama Foundation said the center will also include a Nike-backed athletic facility with dual football and soccer fields, an auditorium, a restaurant, public meeting spaces, a park and wetland area, a vegetable garden, children’s play areas, and more.
“When visitors look up at the Obama Presidential Center’s Museum building, they’ll see three words: ‘You are America.’ Those words come from a speech I gave in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” the former president said in a video about the center on Instagram.
The Obama Presidential Center is setting records as the longest-delayed and most expensive presidential library in history. The project’s estimated cost ballooned from an initial $330 million estimation, the foundation said.
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The former president opted to construct a community space, rather than a traditional presidential library, in alignment with his and former first lady Michelle Obama’s legacy of public service.
The center, Michelle noted, is “a way of giving back to the community that has given us so much. But it’s more than that, too. It’s a tribute to the big-hearted, open-armed people and communities who have defined this city — and buoyed our family through thick and thin. It’s a launchpad for the next generation of young leaders who are going to change the world.”
The couple has previously said that they opted to build the center to bolster the Jackson Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side, where Michelle grew up, and Barack began his political career, first being elected as a state senator there in 1996.
The center will open to the public on June 19, with tickets to the museum will be available starting in May. “Pricing will be in line with other Chicago cultural institutions,” per the Obama Foundation, with all other areas of the 19.3-acre campus being free and not requiring a ticket to enter.
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