Free Republic

When the Obama Foundation snagged a sweetheart deal to build its beleaguered Obama Presidential Center on a Chicago public park, it pledged to create a $470 million reserve fund to spare taxpayers should the project ever go belly up. But new tax filings show the foundation has only deposited $1 million into the fund and has not added to it in years, with critics saying the empty promise could potentially leave Chicagoans on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars. Under its agreement with the city, the foundation was required to create the fund, known as an endowment, in...

Millions of dollars sent to Barack Obama’s foundation has ended up being donated to a progressive fund that supported anti-Israel groups, accused of setting up encampments at Ivy League universities, according to public documents. Donations to the Obama Foundation, set up by the former president to build a 19-acre campus including a museum, athletic facility and fruit and vegetable gardens in Chicago, totaling $2 million were instead sent on to Tides Foundation in 2022 and 2023, according to its latest available federal tax filings. The cash was earmarked to “support local organizations that are working to reduce violence in communities,”...

Former President Joe Biden has chosen his home state of Delaware to build his presidential library — but his new board has opted against setting a budget as the former prez hunts for people willing to donate to the project. The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation tapped a 13-member board of close confidants and former officials, including former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, to oversee the project and raise funds to preserve the 82-year-old Democrat’s four years as president. But Biden’s decision comes as construction of former President Barack Obama’s $850 million library and museum...

“That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.” It’s hard to believe that the Russiagate plotters are so stupid, but the declassified documents tumbling out of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s files show that, while they had a lot of power and managed to hide their nefarious activities for almost a decade, President Barack Obama’s henchmen were none too bright. The latest tranche of declassified emails has Obama’s DNI, James Clapper, telling then-Director of the National Security Agency Mike Rogers essentially to shut up and put his name to the intelligence community assessment (ICA) that Clapper and then-CIA Director...

Stephen A. Smith has hit back at Michelle Obama. The former First Lady took a jab at Smith's employer, ESPN, name-dropping the longtime host and saying the network's shows were like watching reality television, namely "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." "It’s all a sociological study. They think that sports is better reality TV, I’m like, ‘It’s the same thing.' If I listen to ESPN for an hour, it’s like watching the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ you know?" Obama said on her brother Craig's "IMO" podcast. "It’s the same drama, and they’re yelling at each other, and they don’t get along,...

Philon Green was forced to move out of Woodlawn because of skyrocketing rent prices. He wanted to stay at Jackson Park Terrace — down the street from the under-construction Obama Presidential Center — but his landlord raised the rent from about $800 to $1,300. Green said the property wasn’t in the best condition, but he enjoyed the area. Being priced out of the neighborhood was a concern shared at a protest Tuesday morning by other Woodlawn and South Shore residents, who now fear rental prices will rise if a proposed luxury hotel gets city approval. “When you got people’s rent...

The gorgeous Martha's Vineyard getaway where Barack and Michelle Obama used to spend their summers has found a buyer - just six weeks after it was put on the market for $39 million. Known as Blue Heron Farm, the sprawling Massachusetts property played host to the Obamas for three consecutive summers starting in 2009, with reports at the time suggesting that the family paid a staggering $50,000 a week to rent the abode. But the family was forced to find an alternative summer sanctuary when the Chilmark, MA, home was sold to a new owner—who carried out extensive renovations on...

New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom said Friday that former President Barack Obama will not be coming to Democrats' collective rescue as the party struggles to find national leadership in the wake of their stinging defeat in 2024. Cottom argued that Democrats desperate for Obama to save the party are "undignified" and weak, asserting that change will not come from above, but rather from "the streets." "We must start asking how we can save ourselves. We are seeing the start of that in places like Los Angeles, San Antonio and Raleigh, N.C.," she wrote, referencing the anti-ICE protests occurring...

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is facing backlash after saying that creating life is “the least” of what a woman’s reproductive system does. On the latest episode of the podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson,” the former first lady and her brother were joined by OB/GYN Dr. Sharon Malone, whose husband, Eric Holder, served as Attorney General under former President Barack Obama. During the discussion, the former first lady lamented that women’s reproductive health “has been reduced to the question of choice.” “I attempted to make the argument on the campaign trail this past election was that there’s...

He’s got jokes. Michelle Obama said her husband, Barack Obama, joked she was “next up” after her mom, Marian Robinson, passed away at age 86 in May 2024. During Wednesday’s episode of the former first lady and her brother Craig Robinson’s “IMO” podcast, Michelle recalled a conversation she had with the 44th president of the US. “I guess if anything, with mom’s loss, I think that — thank God you’re my big brother and I have a husband who’s older,” she told Craig, 63. “Barack was saying, you know, ‘Well, you’re next up.’ I was like, ‘I’m not really ready...

Former President Barack Obama was spotted going out to dinner with his daughters in Los Angeles on Saturday night — but former first lady Michele Obama was nowhere to be found as rumors of marriage problems continue to swirl. Obama, 63, with daughters Sasha, 23, and Malia, 26, broke bread at upscale Japanese restaurant Hamasaku on Santa Monica Boulevard, which has been a favorite of the family since at least 2022, according to images of the dinner. Despite the conspicuous absence of Michelle, eagle-eyed relationship monitors noticed that the former president was wearing his wedding ring.

Barack Obama has lost his mojo and ruined his brand. It used to be said that Joe Biden was serving Obama’s third term, that his former boss was controlling him from the home he had bought in DC’s ritzy Kalorama neighborhood, two miles from the White House. The feeling was that Obama was the real leader of the Democratic Party and his wife Michelle was the secret weapon they would whip out in 2024 to replace Biden and trounce Donald Trump. Well, none of it came to pass, and judging by his irrelevant poll numbers, Obama’s star has long faded....

Former President Barack Obama sought to distance himself from the Democratic Party after leaving it in shambles following his departure from the White House, according to a new book. The book, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” published by William Morrow and Company, claims that Obama was never a Democratic Party loyalist. Instead, the authors allege, Obama curried favor from a group of “black professionals” for his campaigns, unlike former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former President Joe Biden. Additionally, Obama’s creation of Organizing for Action — a...

Former President Barack Obama reportedly advocated against Democrats nominating Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential election — because Obama didn’t think Harris could win, according to an upcoming book. The 44th president reportedly argued for an open convention rather than anointing Harris as the nominee after Biden’s shocking drop-out, despite her having support from other Democrats, according to reporter Jonathan Allen, co-author of “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.” “President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to...

A veteran real estate developer and friend of former President Barack Obama is vying to build a 26-story hotel blocks away from the incoming Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. The developer, Allison Davis, submitted a rezoning application to City Council last week for a parcel of vacant land he owns at 6402-20 S. Stony Island Avenue. The plot, currently zoned for a community shopping district, needs council approval to get rezoned as a planned business development, clearing the way for the hotel’s construction. Davis is an attorney who co-founded the law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where Obama...

Social network Bluesky, an alternative to X built on open source technologies, has scored a big win in terms of attracting notable users to its platform. The company on Sunday confirmed that former president Barack Obama has joined its service. Bluesky OOO Rose Wang replied to a post where someone wondered if the account posting as Obama was legitimately him by writing “Confirmed!” In his first few posts on the platform, Obama celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), calling it “a reminder that change is possible when we fight for progress.” The former president maintains a...

*Barack Obama’s efforts to raise money to compete construction on his $830 million presidential center are reportedly in jeopardy. According to The Daily Beast, costly delays and worrying setbacks are hindering what should be a lasting tribute to America’s first black president. So much so that its raised questions among center fundraisers about the M.I.A. status of some of the center’s heavy contributors. To some, Obama’s struggle to obtain funds is music to their ears, considering fundraising for the center dipped more than 50% to $129,320,227. in 2023. IRS filings also found that more than $311 million in funds were...

Then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry put Iran’s interests ahead of American national security — service to a foreign power unprecedented in US history. A blockbuster new report from Sen. Charles Grassley’s Judiciary Committee shows that the Obama administration secretly worked behind the scenes to systematically protect Iranian agents and operations from federal investigators — for fear arrests and exposure would upset Tehran and so derail negotiations for Obama’s obscene Iran nuclear deal. Via newly released, unclassified emails, whistleblowers have revealed that Obama officials at Justice and State (and Kerry personally) stopped federal agencies from enforcing sanctions...

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has canceled the lease for the Barack Obama Presidential Library. The decision is not expected to significantly impact the center, as the lease was set to expire in 2025. As is customary for a former president, the building housed memorabilia of historic and cultural significance collected during the Obama administration. According to the Chicago Tribune, the current site, owned by Hoffman Estates Medical LLC, was a 73,000-square-foot former furniture store. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) paid $1.4 million annually to rent the space. NARA is responsible for archiving and cataloging thousands...

Democrat mega-donor George Soros, the lead financer of the institutional left in America, used U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) disbursements to fund color revolutions in the Balkans, according to U.S. spending hawks. USAID gave several Soros groups millions of American tax dollars that allegedly went toward stoking social unrest in the Balkan Peninsula, including collaborative efforts to destabilize Macedonia's democratically elected center-right government and ultimately overthrow it. Macedonia is a broadly conservative country with a flat rate tax of 10 percent, one of the lowest in all of Europe, and a governing right-wing party (VMRO-DPMNE), whose camp won the...