Former President Barack Obama’s days in the sun are over. He no longer gets to run a shadow Presidency under Joe Biden.
And now Obama has egg on his face because of what Trump and his allies just did to humiliate him.
Trump and Musk Gleefully Twist the Knife by Canceling Obama’s Presidential Library Lease
Donald Trump and his merry band of chaos agents are at it again, this time taking a victory lap by canceling the lease for the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Hoffman Estates, a quiet northwest Chicago suburb. The move was part of a gleeful purge of federal leases and contracts, flaunted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—because what better way to stick it to Obama than torching his archival digs?
Here’s the delicious twist: the jab doesn’t even need to land to sting. Federal officials at the temporary site already let slip in mid-2024 that they were planning to ditch the lease and ship the library off to a permanent out-of-state home this year. But Trump and Musk aren’t ones to let a good taunt go to waste—they swooped in to “cancel” it anyway, rubbing salt in the wound of Obama’s meticulously curated legacy. Why let him exit gracefully when you can shove him out the door with a smirk?
Critics are howling that DOGE’s “slash and burn” spree through federal contracts is either a reckless rampage or a puffed-up flex, counting leases—like Obama’s—that were already on their last legs. Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law prof and government contract guru, mused, “It’s possible (DOGE) has some particular malice toward the real estate holding the archives for the last really popular two-term president.” Then he added with a shrug, “But it’s more likely that it’s fakery about unrealized savings, the same as in hundreds of other contracts.” Either way, Trump’s crew gets to cackle while Obama’s team scrambles to pack boxes.
This is all part of Trump’s master plan to gut up to half the government’s office space nationwide—leased and owned—while thinning out the federal workforce like it’s a reality show elimination round. The pitch? It’ll carve out hundreds of billions and smack down fraud. Musk’s been strutting like a rockstar for the past month, crowing about axing thousands of contracts and hundreds of leases.
Sure, AP crunched the numbers and found nearly 40% of the 2,300 contract terminations won’t save a penny—cash already spent or locked in—but that’s not stopping the victory dance. Tiefer piled on, “Not only can I not see how they’re going to save any money, but it just strikes me as amateur hour.” Amateur or not, it’s a thorn in Obama’s side, and that’s the win they’re savoring.
The library itself? It’s been holed up in a nondescript building off Golf and Barrington roads, flanked by strip malls and closed to gawkers. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been forking over $1.4 million a year since 2016 to rent the former furniture showroom, which got a $5 million makeover into a fortress for Obama’s treasures. We’re talking tens of millions of documents, classified files, and over 35,000 keepsakes—like a Saudi jeweled sword, Michelle’s inaugural gowns, and a baseball inked by the 2010 Giants.
But Obama’s got bigger fish frying. The $830 million Obama Presidential Center is rising in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, set to shine in 2026, bankrolled by the privately funded Barack Obama Foundation. The Hoffman Estates spot was just a layover—NARA’s been digitizing the stash for years, prepping the first all-digital presidential library for 2025. The physical goodies? They’re headed to Maryland, with cameo gigs in Chicago. A NARA spokesperson said they’ll wrap by September 30, 2025, saving $5 million annually by shedding this and four other sites. Archivist Colleen Shogan played it somber in 2024: “The decision to close facilities was not made lightly.” Too bad Trump and Musk turned it into a punchline.
This week, Musk’s DOGE crew updated their site, crowing about nixing 748 leases across all 50 states and D.C.—including Obama’s joint—claiming $660 million saved and 9.5 million square feet dumped. Tiefer grinned, “Overall, the DOGE guys are trying to make a great show.” And what a show it is—Trump and Musk twisting the knife just because they can.
The real estate folks aren’t even blinking. Bob Huber, VP at Imperial Realty Co., which leases the property, said NARA tipped them off last year about the 2025 exit. “We had no illusions that the lease was going to continue,” he said dryly. “It really didn’t affect us.” The 73,000-square-foot site’s now ripe for another high-security tenant.
So, Trump and Musk didn’t just let Obama’s library slink away—they gave it a loud, mocking send-off. It’s less about the savings and more about the gloating, a perfectly petty jab at a predecessor they love to needle. Salt, meet wound.
Another day, another feather in the cap of the ultimate trolls America has ever seen in Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What’s on the DOGE and Trump administration’s checklist next? We hear it’s the fraud-ridden Department of Veteran Affairs. That’ll be one to get your popcorn for.
The Federalist Wire will update you on any hot news on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
