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By Hannah Parry
Associate News Editor
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As the Obama Presidential Center prepares to open this week in Chicago, plans for Donald Trump's presidential library are taking shape in Florida—offering two sharply different visions of how presidents choose to memorialize their legacies.
Barack Obama's presidential library, the most expensive in U.S. history, features a sprawling public campus on Chicago’s South Side, boasting plazas, a children's playground, a library branch, sports and civic programming, art exhibits and a museum.
In contrast, Trump’s proposed presidential library would be in a towering Miami skyscraper, featuring a replica White House ballroom and presidential jet. Not to be outdone, Trump's is estimated to cost even more than Obama's, while the president has suggested it could even include a hotel. "It's most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby, which is going to be a trick," Trump told reporters in March.
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Size and Scale: Obama’s Sprawling Campus vs. Trump’s Skyscraper Vision
The Obama Presidential Center spans a total of 19.3 acres within Chicago’s historic Jackson Park.
Designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the center features the 225-foot Brutalist-esque Museum Tower, which houses the core museum with the archival presidential library and forum. The campus also includes the Home Court athletics and programs center, with an NBA regulation-size basketball court, as well as the Chicago Public Library Branch integrated directly into the campus.
It includes vast outdoor spaces including a fruit and vegetable garden, a children's playground, the Plaza and the Great Lawn.
The center will be run privately by the nonprofit Obama Foundation, rather than the traditional National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Instead, the presidential archive, run by NARA, will be made fully digital for the first time.
The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library will be on the Miami waterfront, near the city's Freedom Tower, on a much smaller 2.6-acre plot, which was controversially donated by Miami Dade College.
It is slated to be a 1,047-foot glass skyscraper with golden accents, and will bear Trump's name.
Designs suggest it will include museum exhibits, a replica of the Oval Office and Trump's White House ballroom, an Air Force One jet, as well as a potential hotel and retail spaces.
Rendered images of the space show golden escalators, a golden statue of Trump, and the presidential aircraft he was gifted by Qatar sat in the atrium.
The Trump Organization is working with architecture firm Bermello Ajamil, which has suggested that the library's ballroom will match the scale of the 90,000-square-foot space that's planned for the White House.
Cost Comparison and How They Are Funded
The Obama Presidential Center cost roughly $850 million to build, making it the most expensive presidential library in history. It was funded entirely through private donations raised by the Obama Foundation, which has also been actively raising a separate $470 million endowment fund to cover long-term operational costs.
Tickets are $30, also the highest entrance price of any U.S. presidential museum or library. However, this only pertains to four floors of the museum, while most of the campus is free to visit.
The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library is expected to cost even more than Obama's. Tax documents, obtained by the Washington Examiner, show the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., has plans to raise almost $1 billion for construction and operations.
The foundation has already secured more than half a billion dollars in cash commitments and high-value assets including the 2.63-acre premium waterfront lot in downtown Miami, worth a minimum of $67 million, and with commercial potential exceeding estimates of $300 million.
A unique feature of this project's funding is that it will also use multimillion-dollar payouts from won or settled defamation lawsuits filed by Trump against major media and tech corporations. These $63 million funds were legally directed straight into the foundation.
The Boeing 747-8 aircraft slated for display—originally a state gift from Qatar—is valued on its own at roughly $400 million.
Artifacts and Exhibits: What Visitors Will See
The Obama Presidential Center museum includes:
- A replica Obama‑era Oval Office
- Michelle Obama’s dresses on display
- 440 campaign buttons from Obama’s campaigns
- A Presidential Reading Room with 3,500 personally selected books
- 28 commissioned artworks from some of the most important artists today
- A community basketball court, playground and gardens—including a beehive and apiary
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The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library, according to digital renderings, is set to include:
- A replica Oval Office
- A gold statue of Trump raising his fist, referencing a 2024 rally moment
- Gold escalators, echoing Trump Tower
- A presidential aircraft display, including the $400 million luxury jet given to Trump by Qatar
- A massive replica White House ballroom and auditorium
- Trump told reporters in March that the library would also "most likely" include a hotel
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When Do They Open?
The Obama Presidential Center will open its doors on June 19, coinciding with Juneteenth. The center, which has been in the works for more than a decade, will hold an invite-old dedication ceremony on Thursday with a star-studded lineup of performances by Stevie Wonder, The Roots, John Legend and more. It will then open to the public on Friday.
The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library has no official completion date or construction timeline yet. Trump has said he does not want to break ground until he leaves office.
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