The Barack Obama presidential center opened in Chicago on Thursday after more than a decade in the making amid a musical fanfare and paeans to democratic principles that evoked a previous age, all while delivering an implied rebuke to Donald Trump.
Featuring appearances by a cast of musical stars and retired politicians from a less polarised era, it was a seemingly perfect antidote to the crass spectacle of cage fights on the White House lawn.
Without naming the current White House occupant, Barack and Michelle Obama launched full-frontal attacks on Trump’s authoritarian approach, depicting them as an affront to American values.
It was the former first lady who aimed the sharpest barbs at Trump – four days after an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor called her “a man” during a bout held at the White House last Sunday to mark the US’s 250th anniversary.
In a speech preceding – and in some respects, upstaging – her husband’s address, she paid tribute to Obama’s two terms in the White House. She pointedly denounced “the lies about your birthright” peddled by Trump as he was eyeing a presidential run more than a decade ago – a reference to the “birth” conspiracy that falsely claimed Obama had not been born in the US and was therefore unqualified to be president. The Obamas are a frequent target – and fixation – of the current president, who earlier this year shared, and then deleted amid outcry, a video clip depicting the couple as apes.
“How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure,” Michelle Obama said. “How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud.”
She recited her husband’s achievements – including “ending a war”, “winning a peace prize” and “listening to science” – a recitation that seemed to draw attention to some of Trump’s most notorious sensitivities and weak spots.
Trump, who lobbied incessantly and unsuccessfully for last year’s Nobel peace prize, frequently claims to have ended several wars, although the evidence for many of his claims is contested or thin. He has also been criticized for undermining the US’s global scientific leadership role and for installing Robert F Kennedy Jr, a renowned anti-vaxxer, as health secretary.
Barack Obama’s swipes at Trump’s approach were less cutting but equally vociferous.
In a thinly disguised jab, he distilled American democracy as “a belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party, but to the people and our constitution, [and] a belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections”.
With the former Republican president George W Bush and his wife, Laura, in attendance, he went out of his way to name-check his erstwhile adversaries in a tribute to a bipartisanship that has been largely forgotten during Trump’s era.
“Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in, no less than I did,” he said, extolling the qualities of “character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty, and honor”.
He added: “These are the values and traditions I believe in, and they are not Republican or Democratic values, they are American values we can all share.”
Speaking after Trump had signed an agreement to end the war with Iran, Obama turned to US foreign policy, saying: “America has made its share of foreign policy mistakes. Our actions have not always matched our rhetoric.
“But at our best, the United States has been an undeniable force for good in the world. When we encourage cooperation between nations instead of trying to dominate and bully and squeeze every advantage just because we can, and most of all, when we show through our example here at home that even a country as big and diverse as ours can make democracy work, it turns out all nations, including ours, become more prosperous and secure.”
The opening of the center, on Chicago’s South Side – where the Obamas first met – was attended by two other former Democratic presidents: Joe Biden, who was also Obama’s vice-president, and Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton, who served as secretary of state in Obama’s first administration.
Several current prominent Democrats considered likely contenders for the party’s presidential nomination were also present, including JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, and Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, as well as several liberal-leaning elder foreign politicians. Among the latter were the former German chancellor Angela Merkel, former prime minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Matteo Renzi, formerly Italy’s prime minister.
Entertainment was provided by an impressive list of musical luminaries whose presence contrasted with Trump’s enforced decision to cancel a 250th anniversary concert after several acts pulled out. There to mark the opening of the Obama center were Bruce Springsteen, who sang Land of Hope and Dreams immediately after Obama spoke, Bono and the Edge from U2, and Stevie Wonder.