Tolkien’s description of Orthanc, from the road to Isengard, comes to mind at the first sight of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. You can almost picture Saruman standing atop the tower, sending his legions of Uruk-hai to war against Rohan at the fortress of Helm’s Deep.
Perhaps you prefer science fiction, and you picture Darth Sidious laughing as he informs a shocked Luke Skywalker that this Death Star is a fully operational battle station.
Be it Middle Earth or a galaxy far, far away, the dystopian-looking chunk of rock that bears the former president’s name seems to remind everyone who sees it of something, and none of it is very good.
Except for Barry, he really seems to like the place. He recently took to social media to brag a little about the progress being made, posting a video of himself, complete with a hard hat and safety glasses, overseeing the construction. Politicians do love to cosplay, don’t they?
During Trump’s first term in office, the reactionary left found itself vigorously defending hideous brutalist buildings inspired by the architecture of “militant fascist” Le Corbusier, such as the J. Edgar Hoover Building, when Trump’s administration expressed a desire to return to classical forms in 2018. This culminated in an executive order “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” near the end of his administration, which of course was quickly discarded by Biden’s self-described Politburo.
And with his new presidential library that’s not really a presidential library, the Age of Obama comes full circle. His campaign began in 2007 when his operatives dropped an viral video that cast Hillary Clinton in the role of Big Brother from Ridley Scott’s legendary Super Bowl 1984-inspired Apple ad:
Not surprisingly after the choices made by Obama during his administration, his new building looks like Orwell’s Ministry of Love, where Winston Smith was tortured into believing that the past was constantly alterable and 2+2=5.
First of all they’re calling it a “center,” not a library, understandable given the woeful illiteracy rate of his more passionate followers. https://t.co/Obs0ZY0sUA
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) October 18, 2025