By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Chicago is back in the mind of President Donald Trump, but this time the commander-in-chief’s focus is on delays and cost overruns at the Obama Presidential Center.

While campaigning for Democratic Party political candidates, former President Barack Obama criticized Trump over White House renovation projects and reductions in federal food assistance.

Trump referred to Obama’s comments during a speech Wednesday at the American Business Forum in Miami.

“‘I’m talking Donald Trump is a mean person.’ I’m not a mean person. I just want to have a country that’s great again, is that OK?” Trump said.

The Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open next spring on Chicago’s South Side, although the project has been delayed several times and the estimated construction costs have surged from an initial number around $350 million to at least $830 million.

“Ask him how he’s doing on his museum library. He’s got hundreds of millions of dollars of cost overruns. It’s come to a dead halt. He built it in not a particularly good location. He’s not into real estate, you know, he doesn’t know about location,” Trump said.

The president called out Obama again during an unrelated announcement at the White House on Thursday.

“The beautiful Obama building that he’s building in Chicago for the museum, which is now shuttered up, and they couldn’t finish it, what did you say, about five years behind schedule and about 2,000% over budget, then he tells us how to run Medicaid,” Trump said.

The Obama Presidential Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The development has faced criticism from environmental groups and community advocates on Chicago’s South Side. The project resulted in hundreds of trees being cut down in Jackson Park.

Earlier this year, an engineering firm working on the center said claims it racially discriminated against a Black-owned subcontractor on the project were baseless. The New York-City-based engineering firm was responding to a lawsuit accusing it of acting with racist intent when it criticized the alleged underperformance of a Black-owned concrete subcontracting firm. The suit drew national attention to the diversity, equity and inclusion goals connected to the project.

Groundbreaking for the center was held in 2021. According to the Obama Foundation website, the Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open in 2026.

Catrina Barker and Kevin Bessler contributed to this story.