While President Donald Trump shared a meme on Saturday on social media featuring former President Barack Obama driving a white Bronco as if in chase (a la O.J. Simpson who was accused of murdering his wife Nicole Brown), Trump’s Senior Advisor for the US Agency for Global Media, Kari Lake, shared a photo of the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago. (Note: Lake does not acknowledge in the post that the library is under construction.)
Lake wrote: “This is hideous! Who designed it? And why did Obama sign-off on this monstrosity??”
She added: “Given all that has come to light, especially this week— this is the PERFECT design for the Obama Library.”
[Lake’s “what has come to light” comment refers to Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claim that President Obama led a “yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy” against Trump.]
This is hideous!
Who designed it?
And why did Obama sign-off on this monstrosity?? https://t.co/Q526oKlrYf— Kari Lake (@KariLake) July 26, 2025
Not all MAGA supporters are chiming in to bash the design of the library. As one replied: “I’m not pro-Obama, but the architect of this building is outstanding in the design industry. I find it hard to criticize the building based for whom it is designed. It is still a modern-style with an aesthetic that is becoming in today’s world.”
Another MAGA supporter responded to Lake with an architectural rendering of the completed library. She wrote: “This is what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done, to be fair” and included the image.
[NOTE: Many MAGA adherents who dislike Obama’s politics believe there are better, more legitimate ways to target the former president besides his post-presidency architectural choices, criticizing Lake’s choice.]
This is what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done, to be fair: pic.twitter.com/yOK497WXQJ
— Chaaluna (@TheOneChaaluna) July 26, 2025
The architectural design of the Obama Presidential Center is led by the firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA), which is known for designing cultural institutions including David Geffen Hall in Manhattan, the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC, and the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, among others.