The Obama Foundation leased 19 acres of Chicago parkland for $10 – then opened the ceremony by announcing the land belongs to someone else.
Thursday night, Valerie Jarrett named five Native nations from the stage while Bruce Springsteen warmed up backstage.
Nobody gave an inch of it back.
They Said It Out Loud and Kept Building Anyway
Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation, kicked off the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park with a full land acknowledgment ritual – honoring the Anishinaabe, the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi nations as the original owners of the very ground under her feet.
Then the concert started and she sat down.
Conservative commentator Beth Anne Mumford of Americans for Prosperity said exactly what everyone watching was thinking.
"Land acknowledgements are funny because the real message is 'I want to say I care, but I don't really care or I wouldn't have built this on land which I just said is yours,'" Mumford said.
Steve Deace put it even sharper: "Wouldn't they prefer you just give them their land back?"
The answer is no.
https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/2067687070986805284?s=20
The Obama Foundation holds that 19.3-acre parcel of publicly owned Chicago parkland on a 99-year lease for $10.
Ten dollars.
For land Valerie Jarrett just told the world belongs to someone else.
A Billion Dollars Built on Hypocrisy
This is the third time in two years Democrats have pulled this exact stunt.
The 2024 Democratic National Convention – held in Chicago, same city – opened with a land acknowledgment blaming the U.S. government for "forcibly removing" tribal nations from their homeland.
Then the DNC's own summer meeting in Minneapolis in 2025 did it again.
Even James Carville – lifelong Democrat, veteran strategist – lost his mind over it.
"Lady, you're right, what we did to the Native Americans has really been well documented," Carville said on his podcast. "Why are you bringing this up in an election!?"
He was furious his party wouldn't stop.
They didn't stop.
They brought it to a billion-dollar ribbon cutting instead.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2067657753615630446?s=20
The Obama Center ballooned from an original $300 million estimate to $850 million – nearly tripling the projected budget before the doors ever opened.
Court records show that at least two minority-owned subcontractors who worked on the project later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The president of the African American Contractors Association told Crain's Chicago Business that seven separate subcontractors contacted him for help securing unpaid bills from the project.
His summary of how those contractors feel about working on Obama's legacy center: "It's to the point that they wished they had never done it."
The Real Agenda Behind the Ritual
Land acknowledgments aren't about Native Americans.
They never were.
They are a loyalty ritual – a way for progressive institutions to signal ideological conformity before the main event begins.
It tells you who controls the institution.
It tells you what the institution values above winning, above competence, above the minority-owned subcontractors who built the building and went bankrupt waiting to get paid.
While Jarrett was at the podium honoring Indigenous land stewardship, Mike Owen of Adamson Plumbing was sitting on nearly $4 million in losses his firm may never recover.
Townhall's Siraj Hashmi gave the whole ceremony the send-off it deserved.
"Pretty disrespectful for the Obama Presidential Center to not acknowledge the current tribe leader of the South Side of Chicago: Chief Keef," he posted.
https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/2067652774368579987?s=20
That's the neighborhood.
That's the reality Democrats flew over on their way to watch Bruce Springsteen.
Meanwhile, the Obama Foundation has yet to deposit more than $1 million into the $470 million endowment it promised Chicago taxpayers – a reserve fund meant to cover the project if it ever goes belly-up.
One million dollars.
Into a $470 million safety net.
On an $850 million project.
That sits on land they just publicly said belongs to someone else.
Sources:
- Peter D'Abrosca, "Obama Center's opening ceremony ridiculed for far-left ritual before star-studded show," Fox News, June 18, 2026.
- "Obama Center opens – with millions owed to those who built it," Washington Times, June 18, 2026.
- "Obama Presidential Center's $470M safety net under scrutiny as subcontractors say they're owed millions," Fox News Digital, June 2026.
- "Carville rebukes DNC over woke 'land acknowledgment' lamenting treatment of Native Americans," Fox News, August 29, 2025.
- "Obama's $850 million presidential center opens amid contractor payment disputes," AmericanAlmanac.com, June 2026.
- "Subcontractors say they're owed millions, face financial ruin, after helping build Obama Presidential Center," Fox News Digital, June 2026.
- "Land Acknowledgments Are Democratic Party's New Pledge of Allegiance," The Daily Signal, August 2024.