What does Obama and Clinton do when he retires? Expose the two people’s “post white house life”

[Liu Haoran, special correspondent of the Global Times] since the start of the 2020 presidential election, the former president who has long been dissatisfied with the trump government has “opened all fire” and reached a high point at the National Congress on the 17th. Although the Obamas and Clintons have been away from the White House for a long time, the influence of their speeches still remains, which makes people wonder about their “post white house life”. After leaving office, the Obamas bought a home in Washington, D.C., becoming the first former leader to stay in Washington after President Wilson. At first, however, this arrangement was mainly for the convenience of the daughter to go to school. According to people magazine, Obama’s “retirement” life is generally comfortable: he devoted himself to the management of his personal foundation and realized his dream of becoming a “filmmaker” — with the help of Netflix, a well-known streaming media company, he established his own highland film company. Not only that, but his paid speech offers have reached new highs in entrepreneurship. For example, in a business forum in Colombia in 2019, his “appearance fee” was said to be as high as $600000. In his spare time, he also plays golf to relax. However, in the face of Trump’s frequent attacks and obliteration of his political legacy, Obama has never really faded out of the American political arena. According to reports, at the last press conference of his term of office, he said that he had no intention of “actively participating in government affairs” after he left office, unless the following three situations occurred in the country: “institutional discrimination”, “obstruction of democratic voting” and “interference of news media and dissidents’ voices” – which seemed to pave the way for his subsequent counterattack. < p > < p > with the outbreak of the new crown epidemic and the black rights movement in the United States in 2020, Obama gradually stepped out of the background before coming to power, and his criticism of trump became more and more undisguised. According to the New York Times, although Biden didn’t want to be in the spotlight of Obama in his early days, Biden almost spared no effort to support him. In April, Obama turned his gun to the entire Republican Party, saying that those who occupied the White House and the Senate were “more focused on power than on national progress.”. In addition to support and endorsement, Obama often personally participated in “mentoring,” such as providing advice on personnel and information delivery to Biden. On one occasion, he even pointed out Biden’s “short board” and suggested that he “simplify the length of speeches and tweets”, “speak more simply in interviews”, and so on. He also invited “leaders” of Internet giants such as LinkedIn and Google to give advice on Biden’s online campaign. The fact that such a valuable “consultant” came to an end in person made many members of Biden’s team express “great pressure”. At the beginning of this year, Michelle, the former first lady of the United States, was jokingly called the “empty nest old man” by the media after an interview with talk show queen Oprah. Her daughters Maria and Sasha had “left the nest” and went to university. The old mother was once deeply uncomfortable with this, saying that she and her husband had “shed tears” for it. However, after adapting to the “empty nest” life, Michelle soon found the joy of her new life: in addition to running a production company with her husband, she also became a “Internet celebrity” – opening programs on instagram and spotify, a streaming music platform, to share her growth and life experiences. She also once said that with the return to the two people’s world, the current intimacy of the two people is not experienced when they were busy before. < p > < p > after removing her status as “first lady”, Michelle criticizes the current situation in her own way, which is becoming more and more grounded. Vox website of the United States believes that this “sense of connection” with ordinary people is just the “super ability” that Michelle can make her influence not decrease but increase after she leaves the White House with her husband. Now, instead of trying to be a perfect first lady, Michelle is portrayed as “pollution-free” or even “fragile”: she talks about miscarriage and reveals her “mild depression” on a podcast earlier this month. She attributed the causes to isolation during the outbreak, the intolerable ethnic conflicts and the “hypocrisy” of the trump administration. “It’s frustrating to see the performance of this administration,” she sarcastically said. This issue of the podcast has been widely echoed in American society, and research shows that Michelle’s symptoms are reflected in 1 / 3 of Americans. As the “most admired woman by Americans” in Gallup poll for two years in a row, Michelle’s speech at the conference also attracted much attention. She encouraged people to vote for Biden and Harris, and even accidentally put on the “vote” necklace worn during the speech. < p > < p > Michelle left the White House with fame and fortune. According to the US business insider website, the Obamas’ net assets in 2019 are expected to be between $40 million and $135 million, a considerable part of which comes from book sales. Michelle’s autobiography “become” topped the list of best sellers in 2018. Because the book is so famous, businesses have even launched more than 20 peripheral products. In May this year, a documentary with the same name was launched. In addition, Michelle also engaged in paid speech, although the appearance fee is not as high as her husband, but the single call price is more than 200000 US dollars. Financial experts estimate that the Obamas can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in “post presidential era”. The former presidents Clinton and his wife had already “let themselves go” since they left office and made a lot of money in various paid activities. Forbes magazine previously estimated that the couple earned at least $240 million in assets in the 15 years since they left the White House and owned many properties across the country. < p > < p > according to ABC, Clinton was “humble” in saying that attending a business speech was the “main source of income” for his family. But a little embarrassed is that Clinton has been faced with the dilemma of “no access to money” in the previous two years. It turned out that most of the organizations that could afford him had invited him, but those with limited financial resources were “deterred”; Hillary Clinton’s speech remuneration was also sharply reduced, and the single offer was once as low as $25000. As a result, the couple began to be keen on “speaking tour” again. They made money by selling tickets and turned the previous commercial performances from “retail” to “wholesale”. Some media believe that the Clintons are not only to “circle money”, but also to maintain a certain “sense of existence”. Compared with her husband, Hillary’s life is more colorful. Following the publication of her campaign memoir “what happened” in 2017, she co authored the book of brave women with her daughter, Chelsea. Due to her love of opera performance, the media found her frequently appeared in Broadway theaters after losing the election. At the same time, Hillary Clinton also maintained political activism, personally founded the new left-wing political organization “march together”, and donated money to 19 representative candidates through the organization in the mid-term elections in 2018. On social media, she is now one of America’s “opinion leaders.”. However, compared with the more positive images of the Obamas, the Clintons, who are involved in the scandal, are constantly shrouded in the shadow of the past. The “mail gate” involved by Hillary Clinton in 2016 has been everywhere. Not long ago, federal judges also urged her to appear in court for evidence. As for Clinton, in the context of the global anti sexual harassment movement, he not only had to come out to respond to the “zipper door” from time to time, but even when he delivered a speech at the conference, he was also exposed to the old photos of Epstein victims massaging their shoulders in 2002.