Barack Obama’s $850 million presidential center opens on Chicago’s South Side on June 19, Juneteenth, two days after Trump turns 80. The dedication ceremony is June 18. The 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park features a 225-foot museum tower, an athletic facility, a Chicago Public Library branch and lush gardens.
As preparations for the opening continued, Trump spent the week posting something very different on Truth Social. His feed produced a 50-post spree, an image of a trash can labeled “The Obama Presidential Library” and a Kennedy Center fight that soon pulled Obama into the discussion as well.
That part of the story began after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the 1964 law creating the Kennedy Center left little room for debate. The building is named for John F. Kennedy and cannot carry any other name based on the board’s decision alone.
Trump’s name must come down within fourteen days, while Cooper being an Obama appointee quickly became part of the conversation surrounding the ruling.
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Trump responded with a lengthy series of posts and threatened to walk away from the Kennedy Center entirely, writing: “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.'”
The reaction also included attacks on Cooper personally, along with claims that the building had rotting beams and parking structures at risk of collapse.
The Kennedy Center has not confirmed the rotting beams.
The conversation eventually moved back to Obama himself when Trump shared an AI-generated image of a trash can in a parking lot captioned “The Obama Presidential Library” and called the Chicago center “a total disaster” that was over budget and delayed.
TRUMP: Posts image mocking Obama Presidential Library as a trash can pic.twitter.com/vpcG8CpMrD
— Trump Truths (@trumptruthsbot) May 30, 2026
Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett responded during a media preview of the completed campus. “Judge for yourself,” she said. “When our visitors come, they will see a spectacular campus. If he would like to come and visit it himself, we would welcome him and give him a tour.”
The White House did not confirm whether Trump planned to visit.
The public reaction was consistent across platforms. “Obama torments him every second of every day. Love that for him,” one Threads user wrote. Another offered: “Trump really needs some ointment for that Obama Derangement Syndrome.” A third noted: “If you ever need to explain what living rent-free means.”
The history underneath all of this stretches back much further. The rivalry between Trump and Obama has now been running for fifteen years, beginning with Trump’s birther campaign and picking up even more attention after the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Many historians have argued that Obama’s roast that evening helped shape Trump’s decision to run for president, though Trump has never addressed that theory publicly.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
