Barack Obama spent eight years telling America he was different from every corrupt politician who came before him.
His presidential center is about to open in Chicago – and federal tax filings just showed what he built it on.
What they found inside those filings is the most Chicago thing Obama has ever done.
Obama Foundation Salaries: Valerie Jarrett and Five White House Insiders Collecting Six Figures on Taxpayer-Subsidized Land
Barack Obama stood in front of cameras in 2017 and made one promise about his presidential center.
Not one dollar of taxpayer money was needed for his vanity project.
Illinois just confirmed $229 million in public money on this monument to Obama’s disastrous legacy.
The state Department of Transportation absorbed that bill in infrastructure costs – road realignments, utility relocation, stormwater systems, and the permanent removal of Cornell Drive, a four-lane roadway through Jackson Park, rebuilt at public expense so Obama's campus could function.
The city of Chicago spent hundreds of millions more on top of that.
When Fox News Digital filed a public records request to find out exactly how much, Chicago's Department of Transportation took a statutory extension and went silent – never issuing a determination, never producing a single record.
Chicago's Office of Budget and Management claimed it had no records on how infrastructure money was spent on one of the largest public works projects in city history.
Mayor Brandon Johnson's office never responded at all.
Original projections put the combined state and city infrastructure bill at roughly $350 million.
Without that publicly funded infrastructure, the Obama Presidential Center could not open its doors.
So while taxpayers absorbed a bill Obama swore would never exist, he made sure the people who built his career would be taken care of.
Valerie Jarrett – Obama's closest White House confidante, the woman at his side since Chicago – is collecting $740,000 a year as foundation CEO.
That's more than any other presidential foundation chief in the country.
George W. Bush's presidential center CEO made $661,000.
Carter and Reagan foundation CEOs pulled in around $500,000.
The Clinton Foundation CEO made less than that.
Of the foundation's 10 best-compensated executives, six came straight out of the Obama White House or his campaign operation.
The next tier reads like an Obama White House reunion: David Simas at $626,000, Adewale Adeyemo at $540,000, Christina Tchen and Anne Filipic at $400,000 each, Michael Strautmanis north of $300,000.
Every one of them cut their teeth in Obama's campaign or his administration.
Total salaries and benefits ballooned from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024.
Obama built his political career on the idea that he was above this.
Illinois GOP Chairman Kathy Salvi wasn't buying it: "Illinois Democrats are truly living their best lives – making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to help design the ugliest building in Chicago. Their jaw-dropping salaries prove that Illinois' culture of corruption is alive and well as Barack Obama's top allies rake in the cash."
Obama Presidential Center Endowment: $470 Million Pledged to Protect Taxpayers and $1 Million Actually Deposited
When Obama Foundation lawyers negotiated their $10-per-year land deal with Chicago in 2018, they made one promise to justify handing over 19.3 acres of Jackson Park.
They would fund a $470 million endowment to protect taxpayers if the project ever went under.
They put $1 million in an account in 2021 and haven't added a dollar since.
That's 0.21% of the pledge – while construction costs exploded from $330 million to $850 million.
University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein didn't mince words: "They put a million dollars into a $400 million endowment, so it's endowed. That gets you in jail as a securities matter."
Epstein added: "Without an endowment, they'll have to scramble every year to cover $30 million in operating costs. The whole point of an endowment is to avoid that volatility."
The foundation finished 2024 with $116.5 million cash on hand – down nearly $80 million from the year before – while still owing $234 million in construction costs.
Another $201 million in funding is tied to donor pledges that could evaporate tomorrow.
When Fox News Digital asked about the empty endowment, Obama's foundation said the center is "fully funded" and will open in spring 2026.
If you like your health plan, you can keep it.
Obama Presidential Center Chicago: How a $10 Land Deal Became a $350 Million Taxpayer Bill
Add it up and you see exactly what Barack Obama built.
He secured prime public parkland for $10 a year.
He collected $229 million – likely closer to $350 million – in taxpayer-funded infrastructure while promising none would be spent.
He staffed his foundation exclusively with administration loyalists and paid them salaries Washington insiders would recognize: $740,000 for Jarrett, $626,000 for Simas, $540,000 for Adeyemo.
He promised Chicago a $470 million financial backstop and put in $1 million.
And when reporters tried to find the receipts, Obama's city made sure they'd never surface.
Chicago's budget office claims it has no records.
The mayor went dark.
The governor contradicted himself.
The Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Counselor is now reviewing whether multiple agencies violated state transparency laws.
This isn't a bureaucratic failure.
Bureaucratic failures produce bad numbers.
This produced no numbers at all – and that takes coordination.
Obama sold himself to America as something different from the machine politicians he grew up watching in Chicago.
Federal tax filings just proved he was the best one they ever produced.
Sources:
- Diana Stancy Correll, "Valerie Jarrett earned $740K as Obama insiders filled top roles during $850M presidential center build," Fox News Digital, March 11, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Obama Presidential Center deposits just $1M into $470M reserve fund aimed to protect taxpayers," Fox News Digital, September 30, 2025.
- Fox News Digital, "Bureaucrats hide true price of Obama Presidential Center as taxpayers hit with infrastructure bill," Fox News Digital, February 2026.
- Illinois Review, "Illinois taxpayers stuck with $175 million bill for Obama Center after pledge of no public money," Illinois Review, January 16, 2026.