President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered to help out with the development of the Obama Presidential Center, which has been plagued by huge cost overruns and delays. The project has embraced diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg, left, Fox News Digital, center, Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images, right.)
OBAMA LIBRARY, BEGUN WITH LOFTY DEI GOALS, NOW PLAGUED BY $40M RACIALLY CHARGED SUIT, BALLOONING COSTS
Trump was speaking about the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act -- passed to boost domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing - and its DEI provisions when he pivoted to the Obama Presidential Center.
"[Obama] said something to the effect, ‘I only want DEI, I only want woke,’" Trump said. "He wants woke people to build it. Well, he got woke people and they have massive cost overruns. A job is stopped. I don't know, it's a disaster. And I don't like that happening because it's bad for the presidency that a thing like that should happen. He's got a library that's a disaster."
Construction is still under way at the 19.3-acre site which will consist of a 225-foot-tall museum, a digital library, conference facilities, a gymnasium and a regulation-sized NBA court.
From the outset, the project touted "ambitious goals" for certain construction diversity quotas, with its contracts allocated to "diverse suppliers," 35% of which were required to be minority-based enterprises (MBEs).
A $40.75 million racially charged lawsuit filed earlier this year by a minority contractor against the project’s structural engineer shined a spotlight on the DEI-driven aspect of the project. The structural engineers claimed the minority contractor lacked sufficient qualifications and experience to perform its work, resulting in delays.
Trump on Tuesday said Obama was paying for prioritizing DEI over meritocracy.
"And he wanted to be very politically correct and he didn't use good, hard, tough, mean construction workers that I love Marco," Trump said, switching into his trademark deeper tone while addressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open in 2026 having initially meant to open in 2021. (Fox News Digital)
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Bittner said the hundreds of workers on site every day are a testament to the center’s progress and added that the project is being funded privately and not by the taxpayer.
The library at the center will be a digital one and not a physical one like other presidential libraries have, which are federally funded and have size restrictions.
Obama’s current presidential library is in Hoffman Estates in the northwest of Chicago and is expected to move to College Park in Maryland later this year.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-offers-help-obama-presidential-librarys-disaster