Obama fired after recent update on presidential complex gives locals ‘headache’

Former president Barack Obama’s headquarters in Chicago is once again under design scrutiny – this time leaving locals scratching their heads over a puzzling inscription draped across the top of the building.

“I’m outside the Obama Center museum right now,” Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bay posted to X on Monday, drawing derision from locals and conservatives alike.

“The new lettering — a quote from Obama’s Selma speech — is hard to read for me, giving off lorem ipsum vibes,” he added, referring to the “dummy” placeholder text often used in graphic design illustrations to fill in the blanks in obscure Latin.

The Obama presidential center — which includes a library, sports facilities, a museum and more — is slated to open in June after years of delays including lawsuits and federal reviews of the 20-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side.

The construction includes a 225-foot museum tower with a transcript of Obama’s 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when civil rights protesters met violent opposition from local law enforcement during the watershed that helped inspire support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The text of Obama’s speech, engraved on the top of the tower, reads:

“You are America. You are not restricted by tradition and convention. You are not restricted by that, which is ready to take what should be. Because everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is a new place to be covered, there are many bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We the People.’ ‘We will win.’ ‘Yes we can.’ That name is owned by no one. For everyone. Oh, what a wonderful job we have been given to always try to improve this great nation of ours.”

Critics of the building had a field day with X in response to the building’s review, including one user who compared it to a “Klingon prison” in a nod to “Star Trek,” while others criticized the alleged illiteracy.

“What you don’t understand,” said Target Victory vice president Logan Dobson. “HE’S AMERICA ED BY HABILAND IMPOSSIBLE TO CATCH US,” he continued, mocking the confusing structure of the text.

“The dyslexic in me is not funny,” wrote journalist and columnist Salena Zito.

“He put his own speech outside his library?” Posted by one user. “Find yourself someone who loves you like Obama loves himself.”

“I quit after getting a headache three rows from the top,” said one user.

“Looks like a WW2 German anti-aircraft tower,” one posted.

“I noticed while I was in the air that the sentences go around the west and south sides of the building, and they look decent somewhere on the ground or very nice in the air…

Some users didn’t take issue with the campus itself, but noted how the construction made the South Side.

“It actually looks good,” said one user. “Love him or hate the guy, at least the presidential library will have a nice park for people to walk in. I get all the blue and red. But right now the biggest problem seems to be inflation and housing prices in the area.”

The draft was set to be introduced by the end of 2025, according to the Obama Foundation’s website.

“At the Museum Building, workers are preparing support structures before the installation of a screenplay from President Obama’s “You Are America,” commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches,” the Obama Foundation said in its year-end overview of the 2025 construction.

The Obama Foundation has repeatedly celebrated the center since it was first announced more than a decade ago, describing it before its opening as “a vibrant community center, an economic anchor, and a beacon of democracy right here on Chicago’s South Side.”

The campus has been scrutinized by locals over development concerns and despite its Brutalist architectural style, a post-war style popular in the 1950s known for its modular and minimal designs. To Chicago locals, they called the building “The Omalisk,” according to the New York Post, in a nod to the Brutalist-inspired design.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Obama Foundation for additional comment Tuesday morning.