Michelle Obama honored her late mother, Marian Robinson, during a stakeholder gathering Tuesday for her husband’s $850 million presidential library project in Chicago.
The former first lady shared an especially close bond with Robinson, who moved into the White House during Barack Obama’s presidency and helped Michelle care for daughters Malia and Sasha.
Robinson died in May 2024 at age 86. At the time, the Obamas said only that she had “passed peacefully,” without providing a specific cause of death.
At Tuesday’s event for the Barack Obama Presidential Center, Michelle, 62, appeared onstage in a pencil skirt featuring a sepia-toned image of her mother.
As speculation continued to swirl over the couple’s relationship, Barack Obama clasped Michelle’s hand onstage and kissed her on the cheek. The appearance came just one day before Good Morning America broadcast the pair’s first joint television interview in 10 years.
So far, neither Michelle nor Barack Obama has responded to the viral outburst from UFC fighter Josh Hokit, who shouted, “Michelle Obama is a man!” during Donald Trump’s White House birthday event.
Michelle Obama paid tribute to her late mother Marian Robinson at a stakeholders event for her husband’s presidential library in Chicago this Tuesday
This Tuesday, Michelle, 62, took the stage at the Barack Obama Presidential Center wearing a pencil skirt splashed with a sepia photo of her mother
Amid a swirl of speculation about the state of their marriage, Obama stood beside Michelle onstage and kissed her cheek
Held this past Sunday and entitled Freedom 250, the UFC extravaganza saw Hokit triumph over Derrick Lewis on the White House’s South Lawn.
During a post-match interview with a grinning Joe Rogan, Hokit praised Trump ‘for having the b***s to put this s**t on,’ then after a few other remarks roared: ‘And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?’
His slur against the former First Lady drew a mixture of whoops and jeers from the live audience, while Trump discreetly took off the Josh Hokit chain he had been wearing around his neck, in footage obtained by TMZ.
As a roiling furor erupted online, Hokit doubled down, while UFC CEO Dana White sharply criticized his remarks in an interview with Time magazine.
‘I understand that the Obamas are public figures but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families,’ said White. ‘Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense.’
Meanwhile, the Obamas’ appearance at the 44th president’s library unfolded against the backdrop of a fresh controversy as contractors say they still haven’t been paid just days before its grand opening.
African American Contractors Association president Omar Shareef said seven workers contacted him to complaint about missed payments, Front Page Mag reports.
‘It’s to the point that they wished they had never done [the project],’ Shareef told the outlet.
Some subcontractors are missing as much as seven figures in payment, and many are feeling the pressure of keeping their businesses afloat.
The 225-foot tall library dubbed the ‘Obamalisk’ is also facing backlash from critics who have branded its design ‘anti-Christian.’
The former First Lady was famously close to her mother, who moved into the White House during the Obama years; Robinson and Michelle are pictured in 2012
Robinson, pictured with Michelle, died in May 2024 at the age of 86, with the Obamas noting simply that she had ‘passed peacefully’ without disclosing a specific cause of death
Michelle (bottom right) is pictured with her brother Craig Robinson and their parents Fraser and Marian Robinson, who raised them on the South Side of Chicago
Neither of them has addressed the viral moment UFC fighter Josh Hokit bellowed: ‘Michelle Obama is a man!’ during Donald Trump’s White House birthday event
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Pastor and author Todd Friel said the center’s design is an ‘intentional slight to God.’
The library is due to open with live performances, activities, food and art on Friday and is several hundred million dollars over its initial $300 million budget.
Much of the delay and rise in cost was pinned on the pandemic, but the ongoing spat with contractors has been largely public for many months.
A $40 million federal lawsuit emerged between Thornton Tomasetti and one of the subcontractors involved in the project, as Tomasetti was accused of making false claims and racial discrimination, the Real Deal reported.
Lakeside Alliance, the general contractor for Obama’s library, said tensions such as these are normal due to the size and number of moving parts involved in the project.
In a statement to the Real Deal, Lakeside Alliance said that the Obama Center’s ‘contractual closeout – including the review and resolution of outstanding invoices, change orders and other project matters – continues long after the doors open.’
According to Fox News, Illinois GOP Chair Robert Grogan said: ‘One of their core promises was they were supposed to create an endowment as basically an insurance policy so the taxpayers wouldn’t get stuck with the bill.’
‘They promised hundreds of millions of dollars for it. It’s still sitting at the $1 million mark [where it stood] when they opened it up. So I don’t believe that they’ve kept that promise.
Obama’s Presidential Library, standing 225-foot tall, is set to have its grand opening with live performances, activities, food and art on Friday
The center, which ballooned over its original cost estimation of $300 million to $850 million, has faced mounting backlash as contractors claim that their invoices are going unpaid
African American Contractors Association President Omar Shareef told Crain’s Chicago Business that seven separate subcontractors have contacted him for help securing missing payments from the project
‘The fact that they have created this probably unsustainable edifice to an ego and then, eventually, if it goes under, who’s going to be caught with the bill time and time again? It’s the taxpayers of the city, citizens of Chicago and the state of Illinois.’
Adamson Plumbing President Mike Owen showed the outlet that, according to company spreadsheets, the firm is nearly $4 million in the red due to unnecessary rework, delays and over 100 change-order requests resulting in additional costs.
The Obama Foundation told Fox that it is in compliance with its agreement with the city, which required the creation of an endowment but not a specific dollar amount.
‘On the eve of our Grand Opening celebrations, we are pleased to reiterate that the Obama Presidential Center is fully funded with generous private contributions,’ the foundation said in a statemen to the outlet.
In a statement to the Real Deal, Lakeside Alliance said that the Obama Center’s ‘contractual closeout – including the review and resolution of outstanding invoices, change orders and other project matters – continues long after the doors open’
The Obama Foundation told Fox that it is in compliance with its agreement with the city, which required the creation of an endowment but not a specific dollar amount
Some subcontractors are missing as much as seven figures in payment, and many are feeling the pressure of keeping their businesses afloat. Much of the delay and rise in cost was pinned on the pandemic
However, the library has not only faced backlash over subcontractors legal disputes but it has been the center of criticism from a right-wing pastor.
Todd Friel, a pastor for Alpharetta Bible Church in Georgia who also hosts the show Wretched, slammed the library last week for its ‘anti-Christian’ concrete exterior.
Friel described the design, dubbed ‘Obamalisk,’ as ‘downright ugly’ and noted comparisons to a Klingon prison or the Death Star from Star Wars.
‘It looks like a World War II-era German anti-aircraft tower,’ he said on his June 9 show.
‘It belongs in the Hunger Games. It was designed by Minecraft. In other words, the thing is downright ugly.’
Friel went on to say that the design, which was reportedly influenced by Obama himself, emulates ‘anti-Christian’ aesthetics.
‘His new presidential center, I think, can be described as atheistic, anti-Christian, Marxist, and just another effort from Barack Obama to do what he’s been endeavoring to do now since he was nominated president, and that is to fundamentally change America,’ Friel said.
The pastor also claimed that he believes the building to be a ‘tangible symbol’ of the former president’s ‘utterly destructive worldviews’ and an ‘intentional slight to God.’
Todd Friel, a pastor for Alpharetta Bible Church in Georgia who also hosts the show Wretched, slammed the library last week for its ‘anti-Christian’ concrete exterior
The pastor claimed that he believes the building to be a ‘tangible symbol’ of the former president’s ‘utterly destructive worldviews’ and an ‘intentional slight to God’
Friel argued that Obama’s design aligned with deconstructivism, which he described as ‘atheistic with a healthy heaping of post-modernism’ and tied to Marxist ideology
‘You don’t walk into a building and decide what it means; the building decides what it wants you to feel about reality,’ he continued.
‘Why? Because buildings preach, and the Obama Center is a really lousy sermon.’
Friel noted several architectural philosophies, including the tradition rooted in Greco-Roman ideals which were Christianized later to allegedly reflect truth and beauty.
He went on to note that deconstructivism, which draws from postmodern ideals and rejects those notions. The concept in architecture emerged largely in the 1980s, and was seen to break away from traditional notions of order and symmetry, instead looking to represent the unpredictable nature of modern life.
Deconstructivism was influenced by the philosophy of deconstruction, which suggests meaning and knowledge are not fixed but open to interpretation.
Friel argued that Obama’s design aligned with deconstructivism, which he described as ‘atheistic with a healthy heaping of post-modernism’ and tied to Marxist ideology.
‘Traditional architecture affirmed order. Deconstructivism destabilizes it,’ Friel said.
‘He doesn’t speak with his lips. He speaks with architecture. And what he is saying is as odious as ever.’
The pastor went on to argue that Obama’s library was a visual representation of, ‘I hate this America. I hate tradition. And I reject God’s ordering of reality.’
The Daily Mail reached out to the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama, the Obama Foundation, the African American Contractors Association and the Alpharetta Bible Church for comment.
