Former President Barack Obama took aim at institutions that he suggested bowed to President Donald J. Trump, complaining that “Everything is about money,” at a reception in Chicago on Tuesday.
Obama was joined by his wife, Michelle Obama, at the event for stakeholders of the new Obama Presidential Center, which is set to open this week, a costly monument to his self-importance that has already drawn criticism as the ugliest building in the Windy City.
During his speech, Mr. Obama praised his spouse’s parents, a pump operator and secretary, as people who represent “what’s best about this country and what’s best about our values” before his backhand swipe at Trump and the unnamed institutions he seems to believe sold out to his hated nemesis.
Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama speak at Presidential Center Stakeholder Reception.
THURSDAY — Obama Presidential Center Grand Opening Ceremony – LIVE at 10:30am ET on C-SPAN https://t.co/mzL8BfUl4G pic.twitter.com/QfBeYa1Alb
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 16, 2026
“They represent to me what’s best about this country and what’s best about our values,” he said of his in-laws. “People who aren’t trying to get every last nickel and aren’t cutting corners when it comes to values and treat people high and low with respect and kindness and handle their business, just salt of the earth, bedrock people.”
“There are people like that all across the South Side of Chicago, and there are people like that all across this great country of ours, and their voices are not heard,” Obama continued, before his thinly veiled shot at Trump, who has systematically dismantled his overblown legacy.
“We’ve got a set of institutions that have fallen victim to the siren song of ‘everything is about money, and everything is about attention, and everything is about fame, and everything is about getting over,” Obama said, according to a transcript. “But meanwhile, there are just a lot of people out here doing the right thing and raising their families and taking care of people.”
While the Democrat ex-president didn’t specifically name Trump, it was obvious who he was referring to.
The master of “getting over” has frequently jabbed at the current president in speeches and during interviews without calling him by name, including bitterly whining about Trump’s Iran deal on ABC over the weekend.
Former President Barack Obama is sharing his thoughts on President Trump’s handling of Iran, saying that he is skeptical that real progress will be made.
Read more: https://t.co/txe3Vbif11 pic.twitter.com/FA0jQeY2Ii
— ABC News (@ABC) June 15, 2026
“It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place and had worked for, for a long stretch of time before we, the United States, pulled out of it,” he told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts in the sit-down at the Obama Presidential Center which opens to the public on Friday.
Trump recently mocked the $850 million eyesore with a wicked AI post to Truth Social depicting the monument to the former president as a gigantic garbage receptacle ringed by squalor, predicting that in a decade it will be “a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America.”
(Screenshot: Truth Social)
The most costly presidential library in history, the Obama Presidential Center, announced that the grand opening ceremony will feature a star-studded list of entertainers, including the legendary Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Christina Aguilera, geriatric Trump-hating rocker Bruce Springsteen, and sanctimonious U2 frontman Bono.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.