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President Trump Not Invited To Obama Presidential Center Opening Ceremony, Here’s Who Did Attend

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I don’t think President Trump cares much about this.

On Thursday afternoon, the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago held it’s grand opening ceremony.

Many former Presidents attended the event including Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and of course Barack Obama himself.

President Trump was reportedly not invited to the ceremony.

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The New York Times provided further details on the grand opening and who attended the event:

It took more than a decade of planning, a messy court battle with preservationists and years of plodding construction, but the Obama Presidential Center was finally unveiled on the South Side of Chicago on Thursday.

The opening itself was a star-studded party, concert and celebration, the rare event that drew four former presidents standing together onstage — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joseph R. Biden Jr., along with Barack Obama himself. (An invitation was not extended to President Trump, who recently compared the center to a trash heap.) The Roots kicked off the event; Christina Aguilera gave a rendition of “What a Wonderful World;” Bruce Springsteen sang “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

Mr. Obama recalled arriving in Chicago from New York more than 40 years ago, driving a beat-up car so stuffed with possessions that he couldn’t see out the rear window.

“It was here, in this city, the city of broad shoulders, that I found what I was looking for,” he said.

The exhibits of the museum focus not just on policies, he said, but on democracy’s shared values.

“I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious, our democracy truly is,” Mr. Obama said.

In a speech, Mrs. Obama drew a sharp contrast between the Obama era and the current state of American politics.

As president, she told Mr. Obama, you rescued the economy, expanded health care and comforted Americans through tragedies. And in an implicit rebuke to President Trump, Mrs. Obama added that Mr. Obama did it all while enduring attacks on his birthplace and patriotism.

“You did it all with such grace and class and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park,” she said, as Mr. Obama looked down and wiped away tears.

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The presidential center was created “as a monument to our unshakable values,” Mrs. Obama said, even during “anxious and divisive times.”

Here are videos from the ceremony:

Here’s what the Presidential Center looks like:

This was a bizarre moment:

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Michelle Obama gave a speech at the ceremony:

The Hill reported Obama made some discreet jabs towards Trump during his speech:

Former President Obama on Thursday took a veiled swipe at President Trump while celebrating the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

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Obama harkened to the nation’s founding by echoing the words of the Declaration of Independence, adding that it established there “will be no kings or lords, no serfs or subjects, but only citizens, each of us free to pursue our own version of happiness and able to determine our collective faith to an elected representative government.”

He said his presidential center’s exhibits focus on the country’s shared values “that make democracy possible.”
“A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection,” he continued. “A belief in checks and balances in our government, and an accountability that comes with it. An independent judiciary and a robust free press. A belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party, but to the people and our Constitution.

“A belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections, recognizing that in a large, complicated society like ours, no group or faction gets its way 100 percent of the time,” Obama continued. “And it believes that qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, sense of duty, and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.”

The former president added that these values are not solely party values before evoking the names of his two former Republican presidential rivals in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Former Presidents Biden, Clinton and George W. Bush were all in attendance at the ceremony.

“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.

The remarks are the latest Obama has made this week where he has hinted at Trump. He previously slammed institutions for falling for the idea that “everything is about money.”

Here was Obama’s full speech at the event:

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