When the Obama Foundation secured the right to build its presidential center in Chicago’s Jackson Park, the arrangement was pitched as a win for the city. In 2018, the foundation was granted nearly 20 acres of prime public parkland for just $10 under a 99-year deal. To reassure the public, the foundation pledged to set up a $470 million reserve fund that would ensure taxpayers never paid the price if the project went off track. That promise was supposed to guarantee financial stability for generations.
But the reality looks very different. Tax filings show that the foundation deposited only $1 million into the fund in 2021, representing just 0.21 percent of the pledge. Four years later, not a single additional dollar has been added. Construction has dragged on, costs have exploded, and critics now argue the endowment was never more than a talking point used to push through a corrupt deal.
A missing fortune and questionable spending
The question haunting Chicago is simple: where did the money go? Instead of building the endowment, the Obama Foundation directed millions of dollars elsewhere. At least $2 million was funneled into the Tides Foundation, a progressive group tied to anti-Israel protests and Ivy League encampments. Another $3 million went to GoFundMe.org for unspecified programs described only as “empowering girls through education.”
Meanwhile, insiders enriched themselves. Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to President Obama and current CEO of the foundation, collected more than $750,000 in compensation in 2023. Robbin Cohen, executive vice president of the center, earned nearly $650,000. To critics, this looks less like a presidential library and more like a political slush fund.
Law professor Richard Epstein, who advised the nonprofit Protect Our Parks, has been warning about this for years. “They put a million dollars into a $400 million endowment, so it’s endowed. That gets you in jail as a securities matter,” he said. “An endowment means that you have the money in hand. But they have nothing. They just have the same $1 million that they put in in 2021 as far as I can tell. So, I regard this as something of a public calamity.”
Ballooning costs, no accountability
The original price tag for the Obama Center was $300 million. That number has now soared to nearly $850 million. The foundation has already spent over $615 million, but it still owes at least $234 million, much of it based on pledges that may never be delivered. If the money fails to materialize, Chicago taxpayers could be forced to cover the gap.
Epstein warned of exactly this scenario. “Without an endowment, they’ll have to scramble every year to cover $30 million in operating costs. The whole point of an endowment is to avoid that volatility. They just haven’t endowed it. Of that I’m 100 percent sure,” he said.
Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi blasted the project as a fraud from the start. “It should come as no surprise that the Obama Center is potentially leaving Illinois taxpayers high and dry. It’s an Illinois Democrat tradition,” she said. “Democrats in this state, when not going to prison for corruption, treat taxpayers like a personal piggy bank giving sweetheart deals to their political benefactors.”
A con job on the public
The foundation insists the project is “fully funded” and will open in 2026. But the numbers tell another story. The foundation ended 2024 with just $116 million in cash, down $80 million from the year before, while still owing hundreds of millions in costs. Epstein argued the city itself is complicit, declaring the foundation “compliant” on its endowment requirement even though the fund remains empty.
“You can’t get out of a government regulatory relationship by changing the name on something,” Epstein said, pointing to how city officials rebranded the 99-year land lease as a “use agreement” to dodge oversight. To him, the entire deal reeks of corruption. “Unless somebody cracks open the books, nobody really knows if they can actually fund this project. And if they can’t, it’s the public that will be left holding the bag.”
Neighbors cry foul
Chicago residents who live near Jackson Park see the massive structure rising from the ground and call it a betrayal of the neighborhood. “It’s a monstrosity … it’s taking way too long to finish and it’s going to drive up prices and bring headaches and problems for everyone who lives here,” said Ken Woodward, a local lawyer and father of six. “It feels like a washing away of the neighborhood and culture that used to be here.”
Critics point to the public trust doctrine, which prevents cities from handing over public land without clear benefits. The land the Obamas received was worth nearly $200 million, yet Chicagoans have little to show for it besides a half-finished building and a missing endowment. Epstein now argues that the failure to fund the reserve proves his original legal challenge was valid all along.
A legacy in question
What was sold as a monument to Barack Obama’s political career is now viewed by many as a political con job. Instead of transparency and civic pride, the center has become a symbol of broken promises, runaway costs, and questionable financial maneuvers. The missing endowment money may never appear, the construction costs keep climbing, and the burden of failure will almost certainly fall on Chicago taxpayers.
For many, the Obama Presidential Center is no longer about preserving history. It has become a case study in corruption, where a former president’s legacy may be remembered less for hope and change and more for wasted money and betrayal.
