The on-going saga of the rumored marriage strife between former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama has caused a major rift in the Democratic Party.
According to reports, things have gotten so bad, top Democratic donors once loyal to the Obamas are abandoning them wanting nothing to do with the divorce scandal.
The latest news comes as the former president is in the process of building his pricey Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago.
But according to the Daily Beast, at least some of the donors Barack and Michelle turned to over the past few years are now backing down.
Among them is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who bailed the Obamas out in 2022 with $100 million each, boosting the year’s total to more than $311 million.
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.
Supporters of the Presidential Library are now nervously awaiting the 2024 fundraising totals, as the project continues to be delayed by legal and zoning battles.
According to reports, there are affects of a $40 million lawsuit that alleges that one of the main firms building the 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.
It faced legal challenges to its plans to build in Jackson Park, an historic public park finally winning approval in 2018.
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 $700 million 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 $500 million to over $700 million.
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.
As for the rumors of a troubled marriage?
The former president made it clear that he and his wife are a team in a newly shared statement regarding the deadly plane crash in Washington, D.C. last Thursday.
While sharing a 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 toning down of the ongoing speculation that they are headed for divorce, perhaps.
Michelle, 61, then re-shared his emotional post to her own account.