Obama’s Monument to Mediocrity

Winner of the biggest boondoggle in presidential library history?

The hands-down winner is the 225-foot-tall concrete monolith being built on Chicago’s South Side to honor President Barack Obama. Construction began on this architectural eyesore in August 2021 and is nowhere near completion. Meanwhile, costs have soared from an estimated $330 million to more than $830 million and counting, partially because Obama insisted on DEI hires including 35% of contracts going to minority-owned business enterprises (MBEs) and 10% to women-owned business enterprises (WBEs).

Local residents, most of whom were ardent Obama supporters, are NOT happy.

Ken Woodward, an attorney and father of six who grew up in the area, called it a "monstrosity", adding that "It looks like this big piece of rock that just landed here out of nowhere in what used to be a really nice landscape of trees and flowers.”

"It’s over budget, 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,” Woodward said. “It feels like a washing away of the neighborhood and culture that used to be here."

“When you got people’s rent going from $850 to $1,300, you’re telling people you don’t want them in the neighborhood," said Dixon Romeo, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition.

“This is a monument to one man's ego," said Steve Cortes, a longtime Chicagoan and former advisor to President Donald Trump.

But then again, aren’t most such libraries a bit egotistical?

The first president to build a library to house his archives was Herbert Hoover, who entered the White House with high hopes only to see the stock market crash on “Black Thursday”, October 24, 1929, and again on “Black Tuesday”, October 29, 1929. Those twin events triggered a rapid erosion of confidence in the U.S. banking system and marked the beginning of the Great Depression.

I’m not sure why Hoover wanted to document those catastrophes – or his landslide loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 – but that’s exactly what his relatively modest 47,000-square foot museum in West Branch, Iowa does.

Every president since Hoover has succumbed to the temptation to forever memorialize his accomplishments (and sanitize his legacy) at an annual cost exceeding $100 million… a bill largely footed by U.S. taxpayers. In fact, the yearly cost of staffing and maintaining America’s 16 presidential libraries – including the unfinished ones for Obama, Biden, and Trump – has risen from $70.4 million in 2007 to $101.5 million in 2025… a whopping 44% increase.

Actually, Hoover’s presidential records were originally housed at Stanford University, but when FDR became president, he envisioned a privately built library for his archives, which were transferred to the federal government in 1940 under a law passed in 1939. Prior to that, presidential papers were considered the private property of America’s various chief executives. That’s why only Rutherford B. Hayes had a presidential library – maintained jointly by the state of Ohio and a foundation – before Hoover and Roosevelt.

The Presidential Libraries Act was enacted in 1955 to establish a formal system for preserving and administering the historical documents of presidents. Following tradition, presidents and their supporters privately financed the construction of these libraries. The Act encouraged presidents to donate their papers and associated materials, land, or facilities to the federal government, ensuring these historical items would be preserved and made accessible to the public. Initially, the depositories were administered by the General Services Administration (GSA) until a 1984 law transferred this responsibility to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978 stipulated that, as of January 20, 1981, all presidential and vice-presidential records would become the property of the United States government (yes, this is the law that Biden, Trump, and even Mike Pence ran afoul of). Upon leaving office, the Archivist of the United States assumes possession of all documents. These presidential records would still be held in the library system, as per the Act, but the operational costs of these libraries were now the responsibility of the federal government (i.e. the taxpayers).

The rising costs associated with an ever-expanding library system soon became a concern. The Presidential Libraries Act of 1986 prescribed that, going forward, endowments would be required to cover at least 20% of the costs incurred by the government in acquiring land, facilities, or equipment associated with each library. Most of the private funds used to finance the library are raised through Presidential Library Foundations, which are all structured as tax-exempt charities. Subsequent laws increased the cost-covering requirement to 40% in 2003 and then 60% in 2008. Additional endowment requirements are imposed on library facilities that exceed 70,000 square feet… which is why the libraries for Bill Clinton (68,698), George W. Bush (69,049), and Barack Obama (69, 882) are just under that threshold.

By far, the largest presidential library and museum belongs to John F. Kennedy at 166,573 square feet. Next in line are Ronald Reagan (147,400) and Lyndon Johnson (143,836).

You may be wondering how many people it takes to run these 16 presidential libraries, only 13 of which are currently operational and open to the public. Would you believe 372 full-time employees? At least that’s down from a peak of 438 in 2011.

Another growing problem is the amount of digital storage needed. Bill Clinton required just 4 terabytes, but Barack Obama is requesting 250.

If only he had told the NARA that he wanted to go all-digital sooner, because the agency had already relocated the physical records from the Obama administration to a temporary private facility. Shipping costs were $300,000 and the rent on the storage facility is $223,000 per month, every month, since 2018.

Taxpayers should send the bill to Barack and Michelle at their $12 million mansion on Martha’s Vineyard.

(Special thanks to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation for much of the information cited, including many direct quotes.)