'Come see it yourself': Obama Foundation dares Trump to visit the center he trashed

WASHINGTON, DC: Months after President Donald Trump called the Obama Presidential Center a "disaster," he received an invitation to tour the center, which is due to be opened to the general public on June 19 in Chicago.

The opening of the Presidential Center comes over a decade after Obama left office.

Trump invited to tour Obama Center in Chicago

“When our visitors come, they will see a spectacular campus,” Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett told USA Today during a media preview on Wednesday, June 3. “If Trump would like to come and visit it himself, we would welcome him and give him a tour.”

The Obama Center includes a ticketed museum, civic center, cafe and restaurant, garden, athletic center, and a public library. 

Trump, a few months back, called the Obama presidential center a "disaster," saying that the neighbourhood was angry at the over-budget library.

“Illinois is spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to bail out Obama’s badly delayed and tremendously over-budget ‘library’. The neighborhood is angry as hell. It is a total disaster!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on February 22.

He posted a fabricated image on May 30 depicting a giant trash can in a parking lot under the headline "The Obama Presidential Library."

Obama Presidential Center

The Obama presidential center, which is scheduled to open on June 19, took over a decade and $850 million to complete. As of June 3, tickets were sold out until the end of August.

The museum and the surrounding campus are on Chicago's South Side in Jackson Park. It's near the University of Chicago and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

The Obama Foundation selected Chicago as the site of the presidential center in 2015 and later chose Jackson Park for the project, triggering a lengthy federal review because the park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The project faced legal challenges from Chicago-based nonprofit Protect Our Parks, which sought to block construction at the historic site. However, the lawsuits were ultimately dismissed.

The center also drew concerns from some community groups that it could contribute to rising housing costs and displace local residents. 

In response, the foundation has pointed to the economic benefits the project is expected to bring, including an estimated 750,000 visitors annually and roughly 300 permanent jobs.

The Chicago City Council has also approved affordable housing measures aimed at protecting residents in surrounding neighborhoods.