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BREAKING: Obama Presidential Center Opens in Chicago With Every Living Former President — Except Trump

Today, the Barack Obama Presidential Center officially opened its doors on Chicago's South Side, bringing together four former presidents, a constellation of American icons, and thousands of community members for a ceremony that felt less like a ribbon-cutting and more like a national exhale.

The $850 million, 19-acre campus in Jackson Park welcomed former Presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, along with their former first ladies. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff were also in attendance. The one conspicuous absence: Donald Trump, who was not invited and had spent the days before the event mocking it on social media.

The ceremony opened with a performance by The Roots before giving way to a lineup that included Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Bono and The Edge of U2, Marc Anthony, and Eddie Vedder, who performed an original song written specifically for the occasion.

Michelle Obama took the stage to thunderous applause and delivered what many observers called one of the most powerful speeches of her public career. She mounted a full-throated defense of immigrants, declaring that they are not just Americans too but are America itself. She urged the crowd to choose hope as an active act, calling it a decision that must be made deliberately in difficult times.

When Barack Obama stepped to the podium, he connected the center's founding mission to the country's own founding ideals, invoking the Declaration of Independence's promise of a government accountable to its citizens and not its rulers. In remarks widely read as a rebuke of the current occupant of the White House, he reminded the crowd that the nation's charter makes no room for kings or lords.

Obama also became visibly emotional describing his favorite exhibit: a display of letters written to him by ordinary Americans during his eight years in office. He estimated he received as many as 40,000 pieces of correspondence daily and read ten of them each day himself. The raw vulnerability of those letters, he said, stayed with him long after leaving office.

The center itself is not simply a museum. It includes a Chicago public library branch, a playground, an athletic center, a vegetable garden, and a 225-foot tower currently the tallest structure ever featured at a presidential site. Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett made clear in her remarks that the building is not a monument to the Obamas but a tribute to the communities and people who made their journey possible.

Among the crowd of roughly 6,300 attendees were several potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders, including Governors Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, and JB Pritzker, along with Senator Mark Kelly. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi were also present. So were Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Stephen Colbert, and Quinta Brunson.

Chicago residents who attended the ceremony said the day gave them something they had been struggling to find: hope.