It sure does seem to pay to have “spent time in the White House” on your resume. Just look at former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
President Donald Trump suggested that the Obamas’ wildly lucrative book deals should be investigated in a series of outraged tweets this week as House Democrats continue to expand their investigations into him, hoping to discover some grounds for impeachment. Trump also mentioned the Obamas’ multi-year deal with Netflix, which is sure to bring in millions more for the former first family.
Trump chimes in
“House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent – ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION,” Trump wrote. “So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that ‘Trump’ has done over his lifetime. But it doesn’t….”
“….work that way,” he continued. “I have a better idea. Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Dems in Congress, the ‘Congressional Slush Fund,’ and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has mentioned the Obamas’ deals in connection with his frustration with the Democrats’ partisan investigations. “They want to investigate, they want to go fishing and I watched Bob Mueller and they have nothing. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said in July.
“We want to find out what happened the last Democrat president,” he continued. “Let’s look into Obama the way they’ve looked into me. From day one they’ve looked into everything we’ve done. They could look into the book deal that President Obama made. Let’s subpoena all of his records. Let’s subpoena all of the records having to do with Hillary Clinton and all of the nonsense that went on with Clinton and her foundation and everything else.”
Lots of zeroes
We first heard about the Obamas’ book deals in February of 2017 when it was announced that a deal had been struck between them and Penguin Random House.
Since then, Michelle’s memoir, “Becoming,” was published in November of 2018, and immediately made the best-sellers list. We are still waiting on Barack’s book, which was originally supposed to reach bookstores this fall, but has now been delayed until 2020.
For this deal, we now know that the pair made somewhere around $65 million. That’s right — a six and a five followed by six zeroes.
That’s not all
Overall, however, this book deal might turn out to be small change for the Obamas. In May of 2018, it was reported that the political power couple had struck a multi-year deal with Netflix to create a variety of content. The first Obama production, a documentary titled “American Factory,” was released in August.
The full scope of the deal is unclear. Nevertheless, how much the Obamas are set to make can be estimated by looking to similar deals.
A report from the U.K. Express suggests that it could be anywhere from $150 million to $300 million for a five-year deal — mind-boggling numbers indeed.
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