(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) President Barack Obama was slammed on social media after a top surrogate revealed his new presidential library had been built on stolen land.
“We’d also like to take a moment to acknowledge the original inhabitants of the land upon which we are gathered here today,” said longtime adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is currently serving as CEO of the Obama Foundation. “We honor the Anishinaabe, the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi Nations.”
The land acknowledgement elicited shock from X influencers like Alex Muse, who lamented that “Obama knew he was building his presidential library on stolen tribal lands and yet built anyway. … It is the perfect symbol of progressive politics: confess the sin, change nothing, & feel righteous about it.”
STOLEN LAND: Obama knew he was building his presidential library on stolen tribal lands and yet built anyway. During the opening ceremony the speaker read a land acknowledgement admitted to the theft. It is the perfect symbol of progressive politics: confess the sin, change… pic.twitter.com/0wbhaC2xM5
— @amuse (@amuse) June 18, 2026
The modernist “monstrosity,” the design of which reportedly was inspired by the Death Star from “Star Wars,” opened its doors last week in a spot that once was part of Chicago’s Jackson Park.
It has created controversy throughout its construction, with present-day residents of the city’s South Side venting their concerns in 2023 that they would be displaced by the project.
The Obamas, moreover, are alleged to have shorted several of the minority-run subcontractors tasked with the actual labor for the $850 million project.
I won’t be attending the Obama Presidential Center opening. I stand with the Black contractors and workers who have been left behind. The African American Contractors Association has reported that at least 10 Black-owned firms are owed millions of dollars for work connected to…
— Ja'Mal Green (@JaymalGreen) June 18, 2026
The Obama Foundation also is planning to rely on an army of unpaid volunteers to run it, even though Jarrett herself draws a $740,000 salary, according to the New York Post.
Some have said that the money spent on the vanity project — dubbed by The Economist as Obama’s “monument to himself” — might have been better used on a noble liberal cause such as feeding the hungry.
Obama's presidential library cost $850 million to build, one of the most expensive buildings of its size ever constructed.
I have not seen Democrats asking:
How many homeless people could have been fed with this money?
There is a good reason for this.
Let me explain.
You… pic.twitter.com/ajjlXM1ZIq
— Kevin Bass (@kevinnbass) June 19, 2026
Land acknowledgements like the one offered by Jarrett have become a popular trope among leftists with the subtext seemingly tied into the fringe arguments for open borders.
Singer Billie Eilish faced backlash from Native-American tribes in February after declaring that “No one is illegal on stolen land” in an attempt to condemn ICE’s immigration-enforcement efforts.
A statement released by the Tongva tribe said Eilish had not spoken to them about returning the land on which her 2,100 square-foot mansion in Los Angeles was built.
“As the First People of the greater Los Angeles basin, we do understand that her home is situated in our ancestral land,” said the statement.
“We have reached out to her team to express our appreciation for her comments,” it continued. “It is our hope that in future discussions, the tribe can explicitly be referenced to ensure the public understands that the greater Los Angeles basin remains Gabrieleno Tongva territory.”
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
