Barack Obama beset by new controversy as divorce rumors continue to swirl

Likely already reeling from his party's resounding defeat in the 2024 election, former President Barack Obama has hit a series of additional snags in recent weeks that have perhaps put a damper on the early part of the new year.

Not only has Barack Obama been plagued with rumors about the state of his marriage, he has since been forced to contend with controversy stemming from a racial discrimination suit related to the construction of his Presidential Center in Chicago, as the Daily Mail reports.

Trouble in Chicago

Once envisioned as a potential jewel of the Windy City, the Obama Presidential Center has been plagued by a host of site selection controversies, cost overruns, construction difficulties, and now a federal racial discrimination lawsuit.

Specifically, a subcontractor on the project has sued primary construction firm New York-based Thornton Tomasetti in federal court, seeking roughly $40 million in compensation.

Robert McGee, the owner of the Chicago-based subcontractor, claims that Thornton Tomasetti continually adjusted standards on the project and insisted on “excessively rigorous and unnecessary inspection of its work,” leading to millions in lost revenue, something the complaint attributes to racial animus.

“In a shocking and disheartening turn of events, the African American owner of a local construction company finds himself and his company on the brink of forced closure because of racial discrimination by the structural engineer of record for the construction of the Obama Presidential Center,” McGee's complaint says.

The document adds that McGee “never imagined that the Obama Foundation's structural engineer would single out a minority-owned subcontractor for unfair criticism and falsely accuse [it] of lacking sufficient qualifications and experience to perform its work, while, in the same letter, stating that the non-minority contractors were sufficiently qualified,” though a foundation representative opined, “We have no reason to believe that Thornton Tomasetti acted with racist intent.”

Marital rumors persist

Though whispers about the state of the Obama marriage have swirled for years, it was in recent months that they seemed to gain additional momentum, due in part to Michelle Obama's absence at a series of high-profile events such as former President Jimmy Carter's funeral and Donald Trump's inauguration, both of which her husband attended solo.

Though Barack Obama recently posted a gushing birthday tribute to his wife on Instagram in what some saw as an attempt to quash rumors of an imminent divorce, commentator Meghan McCain recently said that where there is smoke, there is likely fire.

As Newsweek noted, McCain recently said on her podcast, “I have been hearing this rumor that the Obamas are getting divorced by reputable people...very serious journalists telling me that they're hearing that the Obama divorce rumors are true.”

Journalist Megyn Kelly recently suggested that if the divorce scuttlebutt is true, “it truly would be a political earthquake in Democrat circles, never mind America,” and given the party's resounding defeat in November, that is the last thing the its membership currently needs.

With Barack Obama currently caught in a whirlwind of seemingly bad news, it remains to be seen just how he – and his family – weather the storm.