by Frank Holmes, reporter
Aside from some anti-Trump sniping at Jesse Jackson’s funeral, Barack Obama has mostly laid low during President Donald Trump’s second term. Maybe that’s because Obama knew he and his wife would soon find themselves at the center fo a swirling financial scandal—and this one is ugly.
Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and their closest friends have been stuffing their pockets with gigantic “nonprofit” salaries while erecting an enormous eyesore that destroyed poor people’s recreational areas.
Now, they want to rub President Donald Trump’s nose in it.
It begins with not one but two financial scandals.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has stacked the Obama Foundation with her personal friends and political advisers, giving them all top-dollar salaries.
Valerie Jarrett, the closest friend to both Obamas since she became Michelle Obama’s boss in Chicago, got a modest salary of $740,000 a year to “serve” as the Obama Foundation’s CEO. And Jarrett is only one of Michelle Obama’s besties who got six-figure sweetheart deals from the Obama family’s “nonprofit.”
Tina Tchen, who makes $400,000 annually at the Obama Foundation, was chief of staff to Michelle Obama and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement—the office that acted as a front door for left-wing extremists to influence Mr. and Mrs. Obama. The office’s deputy director Anne Filipic also “earns” $400,000 a year on its payroll.
The Obama Foundation may be financing the most expensive slumber party in America tax-free. But not all the top recipients — and not all of Michelle’s most intimate friends — are female.
Michael Strautmanis’ “friendship with Michelle, and later, with her husband, Barack Obama, ultimately led him” into politics, said the outlet Sidley during an interview with Strautmanis. He was Michelle Obama’s “mentor” and later served as a “White House fixer,” according to Crain’s Business Daily.
He also made more than $300,000 from the Obama Foundation.
The Obamas say they’re just paying what everyone else does… but a look at the figures puts the lie to that.
“Executive salaries are based on competitive market rates for roles of the same level in similar institutions nationwide,” said the Obama Foundation in a statement.
But the Carter Center and the Reagan Foundation pay their CEOs a little over $500,000. The Clinton Foundation pays a little less.
Nonetheless, the Obamas are showering friends and close colleagues with cash donated to their tax-exempt cause. Six of the top 10 highest-paid employees worked in the Obama administration.
Leaving aside Michelle Obama’s clique, former Obama White House Political Director David Simas pulled in $626,000 a year. Another Obama aide who became Joe Biden’s Treasury secretary, Adewale Adeyemo, made $540,000 as the foundation’s first president.
The foundation can afford to pay golden-plated salaries out of its $1.1 billion in total assets. But salaries are only one financial scandal in the Obama Foundation.
The Obama Foundation promised to create a $470 million endowment to support its future activities, but so far it’s only deposited $1 million.
Where did the rest of the money go? Now we know.
“If the Obama Presidential Center is supposed to preserve his legacy, it’s doing exactly that — including the corruption,” wrote Matt Margolis at PJ Media. “The Obama Foundation doesn’t just reflect Obama’s legacy of corruption — it exposes how his inner circle still cashes in while taxpayers eat the losses.”
Then there’s the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side.
Readers of this column know the controversy inside and out. We told you eight years ago that community activists protested that the Obama center would destroy public parks used by poor people. Professors at Obama’s former employer, the University of Chicago, called the Obama Presidential Center “socially regressive.”
Local activists also say Obama lied about the number of jobs the center would create; right now, the facility employs 337 employees, most of whom were not poor to start with and certainly aren’t poor now.
But the Obama Center has morphed into a hybrid of scandals with many different heads—and they’re all very ugly.
The ugly-as-sin concrete monstrosity reportedly cost $850 million to build. And it’s opening this June.
“Today, Michelle and I are proud to announce that we will be hosting the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center on June 18th in Chicago, and welcoming the public on June 19th,” wrote Obama, posting a video on social media. “We can’t wait for you to visit.”
Conservatives immediately dragged the former president over the building’s repulsive facade.
Several commenters compared the building’s dull, gray, dungeon-like exterior to a massive, outdoor trash can. Others contrasted the building with the buildings erected by luxury real estate developer President Donald Trump.
Others changed the exterior—which features an unreadable display of quotations of Obama’s speeches— with his famous lie, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
Despite the Obamas’ questionable accounting and dystopian results, Barack Obama feels no shame — he never does. Instead, he wants to insult President Donald Trump.
When you zoom in. pic.twitter.com/UiZPcD2Out
— General™️ (@TheGeneral_0) March 7, 2026
Look at Trump's Tower in Chicago versus Obama's
Talk about Beauty and the Beast! pic.twitter.com/gab877nyAf
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) March 7, 2026
The Obamas invited other former presidents but not President Donald Trump. They even snubbed him on the Left’s favorite network, MS NOW.
“There are all sorts of dignitaries who are there who are invited. And so I’m just wondering, Valerie, is President Trump invited?” asked Jonathan Capehart, host of The Weekend, last Saturday, March 7.
Jarrett replied, “This is really a chance for us to celebrate with the people who joined President Obama on this journey, the ordinary people who did the extraordinary things. So, no.”
The top Obama insider said President Trump can show up later, like any other tourist.
“I hasten to add that, after we open to the public, should President Trump want to come and tour the center, President Obama would be delighted for him to do so,” she told Capehart.
But she confirmed that former Republican President George W. Bush will attend the Obama gala, because “we work really closely with President Bush.” For example, “President Obama and President Bush worked closely to try to encourage people to take COVID vaccines.”
Trump isn’t the only one not-so-politely excluded. When the Obama Presidential Center finally does open, it won’t act like a normal presidential library and won’t be overseen by the National Archives. (You might remember, the National Archives triggered criminal charges against President Donald Trump for allegedly withholding papers it claimed belonged in its vaults.) As proposed, historians could only see copies of Obama’s presidential papers, not the genuine articles.
Everything about the Obamas — from his birthplace, to his real name, to his sealed college records, to the IRS scandals, to his role in a gunwalking scandal that claimed the life of federal agent Brian Terry, to his spying on the presidential campaign of President Donald Trump — has been shrouded in mystery and designed to enrich his family and friends.
The Obama Center is the perfect monument to his presidency: an ugly, overpriced, scandal-plagued, society of overpaid Mean Girls.