You’d think so from this photo and cutline appearing in the U.K.-based tabloid Daily Mail on Monday, August 2, 2021, in connection with the ex-president’s upcoming 60th birthday bash. (See it here.)
The story behind the photo is about the White House press secretary defending this birthday party, which isn’t her job. The only relevance to government business is whether President Biden plans to attend, to which the answer is no, so all she had to say was “no.” Any other questions about the birthday soiree were for Private Citizen Obama and his spokeswife to answer.
As for the house, and surrounding grounds, the U.S.-based tabloid New York Post says (here) the Obamas rented it until December 2019, then bought it for $11.75 million. The Daily Mail evidently rounded up and changed the “m” to a “b”. One assume this was a typo, and newspapers don’t employ copyeditors anymore, having fallen on hard times.
So, not a $12 billion house, but still nice digs for a former law professor whose government salary was $400,000 a year (plus free housing and a $50,000 annual expense account). Apparently most of the money came from book royalties (see breakdown of Obamas’ income here). No law against that, and an ex-president needs a big house to entertain dignitaries and autograph seekers.
Maybe I should write a book, too. Maybe we all should write books. J. K. Rowling made over a billion bucks writing books. That’s way more than Obama made, but he’s not Harry Potter’s mom.
The party is planned to be held outside at the Obama’s $12 billion 30-acre waterfront property in Martha’s Vineyard
A suggestion of some corruption for some of those former occupants of the White House.
Used to be former Presidents were often near paupers after leaving office. Just ask Mark Twain who published Grants memoirs
Where’s the corruption? Former presidents cashing in from book deals may not look good to the country’s wage slaves, but there’s nothing illegal or unethical about it.