Former President Barack Obama was seen scowling without a mask on as he talked with workers at his new multimillion-dollar home in Hawaii.
The photos taken on Friday are the first to show Obama at his new beachfront home on Oahu, according to the Daily Mail.
Obama was spotted speaking with at least four other men from the construction firm Armstrong Builders. Everyone else was wearing a mask.
The property is located on the southeastern tip of Oahu and was purchased by Obama Foundation chairman Marty Nesbitt in 2015 for $8.7 million.
“Construction has been mired in controversy because the project used a planning loophole to retain a sea wall that is almost certainly causing beach erosion,” the Daily Mail reported. Environmentalists argue that seawalls disrupt the natural flow of the ocean and prevent beaches from moving inland.
Three homes will be built on the site, including two swimming pools and a security fence.
The state of Hawaii does have laws in place that are meant to preserve disappearing shorelines, but “beachfront property owners area able to bypass them”.
According to ProPublica, the sellers of the property were able to use a loophole, allowing them to obtain an easement on the sea wall for a one-time payment of $61,400 before selling it.
The easements have been greatly criticized in Hawaii but are still fairly common. 120 of them have been awarded over the past 20 years.
For someone who has repeatedly expressed concern over climate change and rising sea levels, Obama seems to have no issue with a beachfront mansion.
