Barack and Michelle Obama surprise first visitors to newly opened presidential center

CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama surprised the first 100 visitors to walk through the doors of the new Obama Presidential Center, personally greeting them Friday.

The Obamas, joined by former “Reading Rainbow” host LeVar Burton, also read “Where the Wild Things Are" to 25 school children at the Chicago Public Library branch inside the center. When the former president read Maurice Sendak's line about being “king of all the wild things,” Michelle Obama interjected with, “Although there were no kings,” to applause.

Later, awed guests shook hands with the Obamas against the backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of Chicago stretching to the ceiling, inspired by Carl Sandburg’s 1914 poem about the city: “stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.”

“It was perfect. It was great,” said 18-year-old Houefa Agassounon from Chicago after the surprise visit from the Obamas. “I was literally crying. I asked for a hug and everything.”

She wrote a letter to the Obama Foundation last year, asking if she could be there when it opened. She said meeting the Obamas was a bonus.

“This is just the greatest thing of my 18 years of life,” she said.

The Juneteenth opening followed a star-studded dedication ceremony where the Obamas gave rousing speeches to an audience including three former presidents, their former first ladies, and a host of politicians, A-list celebrities, musicians, athletes and others. Thousands more joined the livestream from a nearby park.

A weekend of events is planned for the sprawling campus on Chicago's South Side near where the Obamas lived and began his political career. It is adjacent to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in the lakefront park, and not far from the University of Chicago.

Tickets for the general public are sold out through the end of November. But those lucky enough to score them for the first day got the unexpected thrill of meeting the Obamas themselves.

The campus includes a towering museum that covers the political and personal realms of the nation’s first Black president and first lady, while public spaces include a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a playground and athletic center, basketball courts and a picnic area with grills.

The tower’s design is meant to depict four hands coming together in solidarity. Wrapped around one side are 5-foot tall concrete capital letters, an excerpt of Obama’s 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. It begins, “You are America.”

Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet community members in the Hope and Change lobby before they walk through the museum at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar /Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama greet the first group of visitors at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

Sonya Hankerson, from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., hugging the statue of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as she visits the Obama Presidential Center on the official opening, Friday, June 19, 2026 in Chicago. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama read "Where the Wild Things Are" to students from William H. Ray Elementary School at the Obama Presidential Center's Chicago Public Library branch, Friday, June 19, 2026. (Ashlee Rezin /Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool)

Former President Barack Obama poses for a photograph after reading to school children on opening day of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Chicago. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Barack Obama greets the first group of visitors at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

Former President Barack Obama, left, and former first lady Michelle Obama read to school children on opening day of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Chicago. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama greet the first group of visitors at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama greet the first group of visitors at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama greet the first group of visitors at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

Former President Barack Obama greets the first group of visitors at the official opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The relationship between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans neared a breaking point this week as he upended their efforts to speedily confirm one of his own nominees and said he would not sign the renewal of a key surveillance law unless they agree to new terms.

Trump’s overnight social media post Wednesday that he was delaying Jay Clayton’s nomination to become national intelligence director, just hours before the U.S. attorney's confirmation hearing, further strained relations between the Senate and White House that have been worsening for weeks. Later that day, some Republican senators who have been hesitant to challenge the president directly on the Iran war were blunt in their criticism of his deal to end it.

“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a post on X.

The open tensions are an almost complete reversal from a year ago when Senate Republicans worked closely with Trump on a complicated effort to push through his massive package of spending and tax cuts.

At the time, criticism of the president was almost nonexistent among Republicans on Capitol Hill, and they planned to highlight passage of that bill in the midterms. But as the November election draws closer and Republicans are trying to defend their majorities, Trump is instead needling Congress with his demands and reversals, driving several Republican senators to disparage his actions publicly for the first time.

“I think somebody’s not dialing the president into the complexities of what he’s done here,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday after Clayton’s confirmation was postponed. “I mean, my God.”

The slow unraveling of what once seemed like an airtight alliance between the executive and legislative branches in a Republican-led Washington extends to their policy priorities.

Trump appears to have lost interest in most of the GOP agenda and has become almost singularly focused on his voting legislation to require proof of citizenship, which has almost no chance of passing. At the same time, he has asked members of Congress to fund parts of his White House ballroom project, allow a temporary intelligence director that none of them like and cede their powers on the Iran war.

The growing rift has brought much of the Senate’s business to a halt and put Republicans who are up for reelection this year on the defensive. It has also put pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has been up-front with Trump about what he can and cannot do in the Senate.

Trump has pressured Thune relentlessly to scrap the filibuster and pass the strict proof-of-citizenship legislation, called the SAVE America Act. Thune, R-S.D., has told Trump publicly and privately that the votes are not there for either step. Still, Trump has kept up the push.

In a social media post Thursday, Trump said he would be “the last Republican president” if the voting bill does not pass.

“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, must not let this ‘carnage’ happen,” Trump said. “They will go down on the wrong side of History, as will all Republicans who just stood by and watched.”

Nonetheless, Trump has yet to go after the well-liked Republican leader on a personal basis, as he often did with Thune's predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.. Trump once called McConnell a “ dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”

Trump and Thune talk frequently, even as Thune is sometimes giving the president news he does not want to hear. As Trump pushed for the voting bill, Thune scheduled weeks of floor time to consider it, an effort to make clear that the Senate was supportive, even if the votes are lacking.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, one of the president’s closest allies in the Senate, said he has never heard Trump say anything negative about Thune.

“It’s a difficult position,” Schmitt said of Thune’s role in the Senate. “I think they have a good working relationship.”

One of Thune's closest allies, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, said the even-keeled leader is the “right person at the right time.”

“In the Capitol today, he is the stable force,” Rounds said. “In Washington, D.C., today, he is the stable force.”

There were no signs of a revolt within the GOP conference, for now, despite Trump's pressure.

Thune “has managed it better than anyone else could manage it,” said Cassidy, who has become a more frequent Trump critic since a primary loss to a Trump-backed challenger.

Criticism of Trump has at times surfaced even among his closest Senate allies, especially with his proposed $1.776 billion settlement fund for his political allies and his pick for acting intelligence director, Bill Pulte, who has no known intelligence experience.

But the rift with Trump has also stoked some new internal tensions.

Several Republican senators criticized Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has waged an online campaign to eliminate the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, in a private conference lunch this week for stoking dissension within the party in an election year.

Unbowed, Lee has kept up his social media campaign, including a post Friday on X in which he said that giving up because Republicans lack the votes is a “recipe for failure.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, one of those who spoke out at the meeting, replied that it is Lee’s job to find the votes, “if you can.”

“Can’t just complain about others,” Cornyn posted. “Prove us wrong.”

Some Senate Republicans have made clear they have no plans to separate themselves from Trump.

As several of his colleagues criticized Trump’s agreement with Iran this week, first-term Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, aggressively defended it on social media.

“Let’s get the Nobel Peace Prize ready!” Moreno posted on X.

But Trump has far fewer of those Senate allies than he did when they narrowly passed the tax and spending cuts legislation a year ago. That is in part because he has picked off some of the most loyal Republican votes himself.

Both Cassidy and Cornyn lost in primaries last month after Trump endorsed their opponents. Tillis announced he was not running for reelection last year after Trump repeatedly criticized him on social media.

Now all three have become frequent critics.

Shortly after his election loss, Cornyn posted on social media a fable about a frog and a scorpion. The scorpion asks the frog to carry it across a river, according to the fable, and then stings the frog in the middle of the river, “dooming them both.”

“The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence,” Cornyn’s post read. “To which the scorpion replies: ‘I am sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.’”

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks during a Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks with reporters before a Republican lunch at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., heads to a closed-door Republican policy meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., leaves the chamber, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)