On Thursday afternoon, the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago held its grand opening ceremony. Many former presidents attended the event including Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama himself. President Trump was reportedly not invited.

The center took more than a decade of planning, faced a messy court battle with preservationists, and years of construction before being unveiled on Chicago’s South Side Thursday.

The ceremony featured performances by The Roots, Christina Aguilera, and Bruce Springsteen. During the event, Barack Obama recalled arriving in Chicago from New York over 40 years ago, driving a beat-up car so stuffed with possessions he could not 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 at the center focus on democracy’s shared values rather than policies alone. Obama stated: “I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious, our democracy truly is.”

In a speech, Michelle Obama contrasted the Obama administration with current political divisions. She highlighted that President Obama rescued the economy, expanded health care, and comforted Americans through tragedies 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.

Mrs. Obama described the center as “a monument to our unshakable values” even during “anxious and divisive times.”

During his remarks, Obama referenced the nation’s founding principles: “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.” He emphasized values such as “the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people,” checks and balances in government, an independent judiciary, a robust free press, and the Constitution.

Obama concluded by noting that every president present had upheld values championed by former Republican candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney: “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.”

This event marked Obama’s latest public address hinting at Trump following his previous critique of institutions for focusing on money rather than principles.