Rumors swirling around former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama’s marriage troubles have caused some of their key donors to withdraw their support.
Despite Obama’s ongoing efforts to establish the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, recent reports from the Daily Beast suggest that some long-time supporters have decided to distance themselves from the couple.
Notable figures like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, who each contributed $100 million in 2022 to support the Obamas, are among those who are now stepping back, leading to a decline in the overall fundraising efforts which had reached over $311 million last year.
But fundraising nosedived by more than 50 percent the following year, according to IRS filings.
‘He’s arrogant,’ said one donor who ended up giving substantially less for the building of the 225-foot watchtower library and museum than in prior years.
‘He didn’t help others when they were trying to fundraise and so they’re not going to look out for the Obamas now.
‘They’re no quid-pro-quo because it’s a one-way street.’
Donors are also wary about the more than $5million that was paid out in ‘executive compensation’ and more than $27.36million in other wages in 2023, when Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett pulled in a $740,000 salary.
Some of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama ‘s largest donors have abandoned them amid rumors that the couple’s marriage is on the rocks
The 44th president of the United States is in the process of building his Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago
Supporters of the Presidential Library are now nervously awaiting the 2024 fundraising totals, as they also fear the affects of a $40million lawsuit that alleges that one of the main firms building the nation’s first black president’s library engaged in racial discrimination.
Robert McGee, the owner of the South Side-based firm II in One provided concrete and rebar services for the center, sued New York-based Thornton Tomasetti in federal court this month, asking to be repaid for construction costs.
He claims that Thornton Tomasetti repeatedly changed the project’s standards and subjected his company to ‘excessively rigorous and unnecessary inspection’ and extensive paperwork that ‘impacted productivity and resulted in millions in losses,’ according to the lawsuit.
McGee also accused them of ‘racial discrimination.’
‘In a shocking and disheartening turn of events, the African American owner of a local construction company finds himself and his company on the brink of forced closure because of racial discrimination by the structural engineer of record (Thornton Tomasetti) for the construction of The Obama Presidential Center,’ the lawsuit says.
McGee ‘never imagined that the Obama Foundation’s structural engineer would single out a minority-owned subcontractor for unfair criticism and falsely accuse II in One of lacking sufficient qualifications and experience to perform its work, while, in the same letter, stating that the non-minority-owned contractors were sufficiently qualified, it claimed.
Thornton Tomasetti has denied the allegations, sharing in a memo that the construction costs and delays ‘were all unequivocally driven by the underperformance and inexperience’ of the black-owned subcontractor.
In the February 2024 memo attached to the lawsuit, Thornton Tomasetti shared images of cracked slab and exposed rebar, telling Obama Foundation leadership that the Concrete Collective – which McGee’s company was a part of – submitted hundreds of requests to correct its work in the field.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (right) and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky bailed the Obamas out in 2022 with $100million each, boosting the year’s total to more than $311million
The firm said it spent ‘hundreds of hours reviewing, analyzing, re-designing and responding to corrective work,’ and that contractors caused ‘a multitude of problems in the field.’
McGee, in the lawsuit, slammed back, saying Thornton Tomasetti’s criticism, the suit said, was ‘unfair’ and falsely accused II in One of ‘lacking sufficient qualifications,’
Obama Foundation spokeswoman Emily Bittner told the Chicago Tribune: ‘If the Foundation believed that any vendor was acting with a racist intent, we would immediately take appropriate action. We have no reason to believe that Thornton Tomasetti acted with racist intent.’
Obama, 63, had pledged to hire local workers, contractors, and firms owned by minorities, women, veterans, LGBTQ individuals and people with disabilities to build his five-acre compound, which he envisioned as being a leadership training institute and community center along with a monument to his presidency.
But the center had been a struggle for Obama from the start.
It faced legal challenges to its plans to build in Jackson Park, an historic public park.
Obama pushed to have his center built in the historic area, finally winning approval in 2018.
Ground was then broken in September 2021, but just one year later construction of the library was halted for several days after a noose was found on site.
Barack and Michelle Obama have faced rumors of a separation – above the couple at the Democratic National Convention in August 2024
Obama Presidential Center is reflected in the West Lagoon in Jackson Park in September 2024
The center is being built on Chicago’s South Side near the University of Chicago, where Barack Obama taught constitutional law, and just north of the neighborhood where Michelle Obama grew up.
The roughly $700million campus is expected to include a museum, Obama Foundation offices, a public library and recreational space.
With the delays, its budget has ballooned from its proposed $500million to over $700million. Obama raised the funds from private donors and his center will be managed by his foundation.
The eventual opening, previously scheduled for 2021 before the challenges arose, is now scheduled for 2026 – a full 3,100 days since Obama left office.
Meanwhile, Barack and Michelle Obama seem determined to put on a united front in a bid to combat the rumors surrounding their marriage after the former president sat alone at Jimmy Carter’s state funeral and Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
Her absence revived rumors that the former first couple has or will split up, rumors they are trying to counteract with a united front.
The last time Barack and Michelle Obama were seen together was in early mid-December, over a month ago, when they stepped out for dinner in Los Angeles (above)
Jennifer Aniston publicly shut down ‘absolutely untrue’ claims by a US gossip magazine that she and Barack were in a relationship.
The former president made it clear that he and his wife are a team in a newly shared statement regarding the horrific plane crash in Washington, D.C. last Thursday.
While sharing a moving message to the people who lost loved ones in the tragedy, Barack used terms such as ‘our hearts break’ and ‘Michelle and I send our prayers’ – a subtle shut down of the ongoing speculation that they are headed for divorce.
Michelle, 61, then re-shared his emotional post to her own account.
But the last time the pair was seen together was in early mid-December, over a month ago, when they stepped out for dinner in Los Angeles.
Photos from the evening show Michelle smiling at cameras as she headed out of the popular celebrity hotspot Mother Wolf – while her husband trailed behind, with a more serious expression.
Last October, actress Jennifer Aniston publicly shut down ‘absolutely untrue’ claims by a gossip magazine that she and Barack were in a relationship.
The rumor was compounded by the hosts of a popular pop culture podcast Who? Weekly, who claimed that the Obamas were ‘living separate lives’ while he and Jennifer were having a full-blown affair.
The Friends star told late night host Jimmy Kimmel: ‘I’ve met him once. I know Michelle more than him.’
