Someone’s got to pay the DEI tax. The project came in at $850 million, nearly triple the original $300 million estimate.
Visitors beware! Your cross country tour to visit presidential libraries will take a surreal turn once you cross into Illinois.
The first part of the trip goes swimmingly, You, your spouse, and the two kiddies stop at the James Garfield Historical Site in Mentor, Ohio, and that’s free. You visit the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont, Ohio, and that’s free. You drop by the William Howard Taft National Historic Site in Cincinnati, and that, too, is free.
The James Garfield Historical Site is free, and Garfield was assassinated
Then you and the family swing up to the raison d’etre for your tour, America’s newest and costliest presidential library. You happen to arrive on Tuesday. After parking a fraught mile away, you are surprised to see a huge crowd jostling to get in. In fact, two women start throwing down right in front of you. Others join in.
“What’s going on?” You ask. “Free Tuesday,” you’re told.
That’s cool. You queue up to the ticket booth, and the ticket taker asks for your ID. You show her your Pennsylvania driver’s license. With all the charm of the Pittsburgh DMV lady who gave you the license, she sneers, “Only Illinois residents get in free.”
Yes We Can—Charge You Through the Nose
“Is that right?”
“Read the sign, Sluggo.” There it was in black and white.
*Must be able to provide proof of residency. Be prepared to show proof of residency at the Museum with a valid photo ID, Illinois driver’s license, state ID, or city-issued ID.”
A good liberal, you are taken aback. “Shades of Jim Crow,” you mutter. The ticket taker smiles. She’s in on the joke.
“Can I pay?” you ask.
“Yea,” she chuckles, surprised that anyone would want to pay to visit this Stalinist monstrosity. “That’ll be 106 dollars.”
“Excuse me? 106 dollars? Did I hear you right?”
“Yea, 30 bucks each for the adults, and $23 bucks for each of the kids.”
“But they’re under 10.”
“I don’t care if they can yodel under water. To get a kids’ discount they have to be two or under?”
“TWO!”
“Yup. Two.”
The Obama Center people shy from close-ups
Welcome to the Obama Presidential Center Museum. In just two weeks, tickets go on sale for the much anticipated opening on June 19—Juneteenth, natch—and they are almost comically expensive. In fact, for all their socialist blather, the Obama people are charging more than any presidential library/museum in the country.
The kids fee chez Obama is twice that of the adult fee at even some of the newer presidential libraries, including those of Carter, Clinton, and George H.W. Bush. And the center isn’t even posting parking rates. One can imagine why.
The excess costs make sense. After all, how many other presidential centers have “an NBA regulation sized basketball court”? Says the website, “Hang with friends on the Great Lawn or shoot some hoops at Home Court. From around the block to across the world, we invite you into our home for hope and change.” Yea, that should work out, especially on Tuesday.
Visitors are also invited to “nourish your soul” at a restaurant overseen by “Chicago’s own Chef Cliff Rome.” Word of warning to Chef Rome—If Barack asks you to go paddle boarding in Lake Michigan, give that a hard pass.
I hope the Great Lawn is done right, unkempt and full of weeds, and not green and manicured, which as we were told recently is just the latest sign of white supremacy.
In 2024, Valerie Jarrett "earned" $740,000 as the CEO of the Obama Foundation, which operates the Obama Presidential Center. I don't know what her 2025 salary was, or what her 2026 salary is. The Obama Foundation salaries and benefits ballooned from $18.5 million to $43.7 million in 2024. One can only wonder how much the Obamas are raking in ..., thus someone has to make sure the fat cats remain fat cats! Meooow!
I believe they are currently recruiting volunteers to fill the non-management staff.