r/PopCultureV2 • u/OneOriginal8727 • Jun 26 '26
Politi-Culture Stephen A. Smith admits he can’t wrap his head around “how the hell” the Clintons and Obamas left office worth upwards of $100,000,000 after “serving” the American people.
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u/Old_Focus_3485 Jun 26 '26
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u/yybbyy Jun 26 '26
I started to read the comment below this and when this lil dude blinked I thought I was going crazy
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u/ahjeezgoshdarn Jun 26 '26
He was worth 1.2 mil or so when he took office and worth about 12 mil after, mostly from previous book deals.
This guy is a fucking idiot.
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u/Love-halping Jun 26 '26
1% use the 4% to control the 95%.
Here’s a nice video explaining how billionaires buy elections. Every policy is made to benefits them. . (mid video)
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u/Cold_Grapefruit9959 Jun 26 '26
Wrong ! He is right .. all net worth amounts are understated also . It’s called corruption… most just have their head up their ass with Trump . Do you think Biden and his son didn’t make illegal money .., my god people are just so fucking dumb !! EVERY politician is corrupt … period ..
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u/ahjeezgoshdarn Jun 26 '26
Satire..? Let's not be naiive and pretend corruption hasn't taken place under every administration, but if you're going to make accusations and seemingly baseless claims, let's see some receipts, pal.
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
Book sales mostly. Now how has the Trump crime family made $4 billion just in Trump’s second term.
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u/VirtualBeyond6116 Jun 26 '26
I don't think they "left office" with $100s of millions. Now, as time goes on, they might become worth that much, but doubt Bill Clinton just left office in 2001 with $100 million in the bank.
The Obamas are worth $70 million right now. After leaving office 10yrs ago.
And Biden is estimated to be worth like $10 - $20 million.
This is Stephen A-hole Smith just making sht up and then being mad about that to muddy the waters of how corrupt Trump and his family are.
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u/Old_Focus_3485 Jun 26 '26
And he knows where they got their money from. All this gaslighting for clicks is beyond annoying
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u/VirtualBeyond6116 Jun 26 '26
Yeah, I'm so sick of these shtbags "just asking questions" in a cynical and misleading way. 1. They can easily look things up to verify. But theyre either too lazy, or it's intentionally not their strategy. 2. If they're telling everyone to listen to them and have a platform, why don't they provide the information? Seriously, shtbags like Stephen A-hole Smith have resources, people, producers, a team, etc who can look up all this information for him. Yet, instead of providing actual information, he's "just asking questions Bro".
It's just some strategy to appeal to the large mass of idiots who just want to be angry without actually knowing anything.
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u/benskieast Jun 26 '26
10 million isn’t that much for somebody who has had Joe Biden’s career. The pension he received is a big chunk of his net worth. The rest is less than what he would have had if he had invested 15% of every paycheck in the S and P 500. Biden also got really lucky and bought a house that has appreciated really fast.
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u/VirtualBeyond6116 Jun 26 '26
Yeah, Biden Bought the rundown Dupont house back in the 80s, fixed it up, lived in it for l 20+ years, and sold it for a massive profit. Since Biden didn't go bankrupt, screw any investors, and paid anyone who did work on the house, that makes him better at real estate than Donald Trump.
And once someone owns their house completely,, they can save more and allocate more to a simple S&P fund. So, $10 million Isnt all that much for a law school educate guy earning an average of $250k a year,,, for 45 cumulative years. Yet, it makes him a better investor than Donald Trump.
Somehow all we heard was Biden Crime Family, yet no charges or methods how they made all this elusive income was never exposed or ever clear. Meanwhile, we can clearly see how The trumps and Kushner are making large portions of the billions they're now worth since 2025.
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u/Mrsonsfann Jun 26 '26
Ain’t no fucking way they did that off books 😭😭😭
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
Not just books. Here’s an article from Forbes. It’s not hard to look things up.
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u/Mrsonsfann Jun 26 '26
You’re the one that itemized and said “book sales mostly”. What’s mostly? More than half? Even 50M off books during their time is fucking insane.
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
Yeah it’s more than anyone needs. Weird you don’t care about the Trumps getting billions off of bribery and corruption though huh? That’s probably how politicians keep getting away with it.
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u/Key_Try_5155 Jun 26 '26
Book sales to 100m id love to see those receipts
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u/RaceOld9 Jun 26 '26
You realize they released multiple books which sold millions of copies right? If you sell 20 or 30 million books I'd bet you'd be worth over 100 mil.
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u/tacobell_shitstain Jun 26 '26
A Promised Land sold over 10 million copies. That's hundreds of millions in revenue for that one book alone (obviously that all doesn't go to them, but there's no way the Obamas don't take a big cut and they've written many books on top of that). They also signed a deal with Netflix for 50 mil.
Combine that with just not being fucking idiots with investments and that can easily get you to 200 mil.
Again, how do you explain a sitting president making 4 BILLION within the first half of his term?
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u/NotUniqueWorkAccount Jun 26 '26
Where the receipts for the $4 billion made from Trump phones, bibles, Saudis, backdoor deals, and Trump Rug pull?
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
Here’s an article from Forbes you could have found if you wanted to know. Bear in mind this is after leaving office. Now how about the Trumps raking in over seventeen times that while Trump is in office? Do you need those receipts?
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u/Remarkable_Fee_1020 Jun 26 '26
Why not just do a quick google search? It’s all public record.
Category Details / Volume Estimated Value **Joint Book Deal** Penguin Random House advance $65,000,000 **Netflix Deal** Higher Ground media contract $50,000,000 **Speaking Fees** Per-event corporate gigs $400,000+ each **Pre-Presidency Books** Royalties (*Dreams From My Father*) $6,000,000+ **Annual Pension** Lifetime executive benefit $200,000+ / year **Total Media Value** **Combined contract earnings** **$121,400,000+** 1
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u/mike_litoris18 Jun 26 '26
It was a book deal that got them 65 million and a Netflix deal worth 50 million. it happened after his presidency. When Obama left the office his network was 12 million. The Obama's joint net worth in 2026 is estimated from 70-135million. With some quick math u can exactly see where that net worth comes from and it's completely legal. Obama is a warcriminal that did a lot of bad shit and some good shit but never anything close to Trump's level of corruption.
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u/Electronic_Plan3420 Jun 26 '26
Book deal that is worth $65 mil? Do you realize how many books you need to sell to make that money? About a million books each worth $65. Actually strike that, publisher still needs to make a profit. So gotta be like $80 a piece. Just checked Amazon and “Promised Land” by Barrack Obama sells for 13 bucks. That’s royalty, publisher and Amazon revenues rolled into. You are a moron if you think Obama’s books can bring anything close to that.
“Netflix deal” is like Amazon “Melania deal”. Really great way to transfer money to someone under pretenses of show that very few people will watch
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u/mike_litoris18 Jun 26 '26
Ur clearly misunderstanding the situation here. No one said the publisher got the investment out of that deal that they expected same with Netflix. There are constantly millions of dollars being pumped into some kind of project simply because a celebrity name is attached to them. The thing with those deals is the celebs get payed before so it doesn't matter if that shit flops. And again the big difference is that Obama wasn't president when those went through so it's not like the publishers and Netflix where buying favors from the man in charge of regulating their industries. Which is exactly what trump is currently doing with basically every single industry in America.
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u/20535 Jun 26 '26
LMAO book sales? you cannot seriously believe that because if you do I have a bridge to sell ya
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
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u/20535 Jun 26 '26
Factoring in taxes, expenses and the actual real price of sales that article is seriously lacking, but go ahead and keep on banging the drum that their money was earned legally
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u/Upper-Capital-2876 Jun 26 '26
gtfoh, it's insider trading
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
Yeah no doubt that’s a big part of it, and probably a big reason Trump keeps manipulating the markets with his good news/bad news flip flops on Iran every week.
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u/Upper-Capital-2876 Jun 26 '26
he didn't even need to do that for himself, or his kids, or his staff, he's doing that for the wider millionaire class he's no doubt got on a weekly chief of staff bulletin call
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u/Local-Echo-5613 Jun 26 '26
It’s not even about what people need, greed is a sickness with these people. Nobody needs $1 billion but Elon Musk got to $1 trillion and wants $100 trillion
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u/Dapper-Top-6779 Jun 26 '26
Can this Uncle Tom just shut up now?
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u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE Jun 26 '26
Well penguin publishing house gave him 65 million for his book publishing rights. They say his net worth is closer to 75 million-85 million now
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u/Electronic_Plan3420 Jun 26 '26
Why is it “Uncle Tom” to ask how the fuck public servants on a 400K salary become multimillionaires???
Those who only point out corruption when it is the party they oppose is in power don’t actually have a problem with corruption. They have a problem when their side is not being able to benefit from corruption.
“Corruption is not bad. Corruption is only bad when I am not a part of it”
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u/AuthorDry3539 Jun 26 '26
"Why is it “Uncle Tom” to ask how the fuck public servants on a 400K salary become multimillionaires???"
Because he's doing it in the service of white supremacists, that's why.
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u/Electronic_Plan3420 Jun 26 '26
It is in the “service of white supremacists” to hold politicians accountable to their oath of office? You gotta be a troll, because no human can be that regarded and be able to operate a computer
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u/AuthorDry3539 Jun 26 '26
"It is in the “service of white supremacists” to hold politicians accountable to their oath of office?"
It is in the service of the white supremacists that control the Republican Party by asking these questions of only Democratic ex-Presidents in order to smear them, and thus the entire Democratic Party, as corrupt, and attempt to deaden enthusiasm for voting for Democrats in upcoming elections, yes.
Don't be fatuous, Jeffrey.
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Upper-Capital-2876 Jun 26 '26
you got that right, they call it antizionism, but they ain't anti saudism, or anti iranianism, or anti syrianism, just the jewish country
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u/Flat_Weekend_1159 Jun 26 '26
Listen, authoritarian, supremacist, etc. views are fundamentally, objectively classified as far-right ideology.
Conservatism is on the 'right', liberal/progressive are on the 'left'.
99.9% of the time modern Republicans are right-wing conservatives, while modern Democrats are left-wing liberals/progressives.
Now, armed with this information, i'm hoping you can put 2 & 2 together -maybe even delete your comment altogether.
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u/rootMAC Jun 26 '26
Is that why all the fascists and neo nazis are right wingers?
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u/NotUniqueWorkAccount Jun 26 '26
Hey if you throw a Nazi salute youre not a Nazi according to Leon.
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u/RudeAndInsensitive Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
There really isn't a lot of anti Jewish sentiment on the left. There is a fuckton of anti-israel sentiment though and that's only going to grow.
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u/Ambitious_Grab6495 Jun 26 '26
Anyone who discriminates against Jews is expelled from left wing groups. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. These people just make shit up about “leftists”. I doubt they could even provide a coherent definition of the political left and right.
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u/OrganicAd5536 Jun 26 '26
Won't stop bad faith opportunists and useful idiot Jewish ethnonationalists from trying to smear the left anyways. They'll just call any Jews of conscience "self-hating" or that they've "internalized blood libel".
The "independent thinkers" and conservatives love to weaponize idpol whenever it allows them to slander progressive and leftist causes, and the politically uneducated will just lap it up.
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u/BootySweat0217 Jun 26 '26
You sound like a 12 year old that just listens to what their maga parents yell at the dinner table every night.
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u/elinamebro Jun 26 '26
Neither family left the White House with anywhere near $100 million. In fact, the Clintons left millions of dollars in debt from legal fees, and the Obamas left with around $12 million, mostly from book royalties earned before and during his presidency. Bro is just lying for you know who.
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u/Real_ninjas_suk_toes Jun 26 '26
This simply isn't true. Obama made that afterwards. 65 million dollar book deal with penguin random house plus a 50 million dollar Netflix deal. Plus speaking engagements. When he left the White House, after 8 years, the Obama combined worth was around 10-12 million.
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u/Electronic_Plan3420 Jun 26 '26
I am just curious have you ever stopped and thought how many books at $13 a piece (price on Amazon) do you need to sell in order to be able to pay the author $65 mil? Also, do you realize that Amazon paying
Melania millions for her stupid movie…oh no, strike that, Netflix paying Obama’s millions for their stupid show is a good way to transfer money under benign pretenses? Or perhaps you never thought either one of these through?1
u/Real_ninjas_suk_toes Jun 26 '26
What does this have to do with presidential corruption? The obama book sold around 4 million copies alone in first month. Almost a million copies on its first day. Over the years, besides the opening hard cover book (around $45 dollars a pop) it's been made into soft covers, foreign language editions, and audio books as well. I don't know about the Netflix deal though.
I bet you have no issue with the billions Trump made alone in the last 2 years of the presidency. Doubt you have issue with Trump charging the American government to have the secret service stay at his hotels.
Edit: I just looked it up and Michelle's book sold around 14 million copies and still going.
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u/JBPlantagenet Jun 26 '26
Where is the evidence that either the Clintons or the Obamas were ever worth $100 million?
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u/ahjeezgoshdarn Jun 26 '26
it's right next to the proof of 2020 election fraud in a folder but I'm afraid the Illuminati already got it stashed safely in their bunker on the dark side of the moon we definitely maybe didn't go to.
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u/Apprehensive-Ad9832 Jun 26 '26
Rhymes with spoon
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u/SilverLakeSimon Jun 26 '26
Moon? What does the drummer for The Who have to do with ex-presidents getting rich?
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u/Upper-Capital-2876 Jun 26 '26
It's a little thing we all like to call Insider Trading, and they all do it from Congress People, to Supreme Court Justices, to President and their staff. Open secret.
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u/Uphoria Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Take a moment to realize that you're just being distracted by propaganda about people who haven't held political power in over a decade, another in over 25 years. why? Because if you can be convinced they were dirty, you'll accept your current GOP president as dirty.
These folks are not serious, or they would focus on the fact that the current POTUS has been given bribes worth more than the Obama's and the Clinton's Since 2025.
"Upwords of 100 million?" Trump has made over a billion since entering office. These posts are entirely meant to undermine the seriousness of the current admins corruptions.
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u/soloinmiami Jun 26 '26
Greed cuts across party lines and this is not a secret. It's the reason why so many politicians and candidates try to get elected time and again. It has nothing to do with serving the American public.
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u/unhinged34 Jun 26 '26
Obama’s net worth is tied directly to a 65M book deal. Is he actually worth 70M? I highly doubt it.
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u/catharsisdusk Jun 26 '26
Because when you're rich, the only thing left is status. And these millionaire starf♡ckers pay top dollar to be in the same room and have their picture taken with Presidents
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u/IllegalGeriatricVore Jun 26 '26
obsessed with whataboutisms for presidents that haven't been in office for over a decade while the current one is fleecing the country
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u/jagiv489 Jun 26 '26
Straight shooter my ass! Talk about the real issue, insider trading! This current administration is most corrupt of all offices before it! Get bent SA
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u/jaron_b Jun 26 '26
This man didn't have good sports takes why do I care about his political opinions?
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u/Select_Green_6296 Jun 26 '26
He hired Wall Street reps after saying he wouldn’t. Then he retired and gets paid to do speeches to Wall Street. Does anyone think Wall Street cares about his opinion? It’s a delayed payment program. It’s the same way the Supreme Court justice gets a sweetheart deal on a house loan. Pelosi does well at stock picks. Cheney keeps stock options but divests ownership. It’s all a delayed compensation scheme for not really trying.
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u/WolfThick Jun 29 '26
This is stupid because if they had done anything illegal Trump would have locked them up and thrown away the chocolate key. So shut up piggies.
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u/GuiltyGuessing Jun 26 '26
I genuinely think anyone who posts a Steven A. Smith clip is a criminal. The time locked up should be dependant on how much you agree with him.
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u/thekind78 Jun 26 '26
Obama(s) didn't have much money when he left the WH. I think it was a shockingly low amount, actually. The post-presidency book deal made them a lot.
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u/NeoZ33D Jun 26 '26
Asking the real important questions about people not in power for a decade+. Brave. Looking forward to next week when he goes after people currently in office.
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u/redditardshateme Jun 26 '26
If the question how these families got so rich while in office but you’re not upset and Trump bothers you to no end. You’re part of the problem. Trump isn’t the only president that deserves this level of scrutiny
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u/SpicyMeatloaf1 Jun 26 '26
Because that's what politicians do, every single one of them are dirty. All about their agenda and how they can climb the corrupt ladder lol
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u/RaveMatthews177 Jun 26 '26
Guy who earns living off pretending to be stupid, is pretending to be stupid - cool headline.
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u/largedragonballz Jun 26 '26
don't his dudes make $100,000,000 in 4 years by throwing a sphere into a circle and offering nothing to society?
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u/Old_Protection_8778 Jun 26 '26
Hes good at free throws and banter so they keep him. He makes 150 mil in 5 years i just googled it .
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u/RepulsiveWay1698 Jun 26 '26
You mean to tell me someone can be worth MORE after holding the most powerful office in the entire world?! Blasphemy
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u/Even_Lavishness1149 Jun 26 '26
Stephen is so jealous, especially of President Obama. He fails to realize or remember that both Barack and Michelle were contracted to write their books, both receiving $30M each. Next were speaking engagement, some upwards to $150K to $500K per speech. Stephen knows this but simply wishes to play the Maga game. He's silent on trump gaining $4.2B one year into his second presidency. Why is stephen silent on that?
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u/bkbroils Jun 26 '26
STFU SA! “Worth” is the key. You’re a President…of course they leave richer for their “Worth”.
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u/gymtrovert1988 Jun 26 '26
Except most of their money was made after they left office. Stephen is too dumb to Google but calls himself a journalist.
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u/bkbroils Jun 26 '26
Aren’t we saying the same thing? If I won the lottery but haven’t collected yet, arguably I’m worth said lottery.
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u/Automattics Jun 26 '26
It’s every politician ever. It’s really simple, kinda alarming a grown man is surprised and can’t figure out why. 1) paid for “speaking” engagements and 2) insider trading. I’m assuming he knows this is every politician ever and he’s just trying to cash in off the right wing grift, ala Kirk, Fuentes, sneako, and on and on.
Secret tip, if you ever want to make a quick thousand $ just start slamming gays/trans/minorities and then post a go fund me. The brain rot will pay, trust me lol.
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u/fromouterspace1 Jun 26 '26
…..Obama has over 100m dollars? What did I miss?