A guy’s got to make a buck or two while the sun shines was NOT what I thought when I saw that newly elected president Donald Trump was texting me about purchasing his ‘Tis the Season Trump shirt for only $30.
At first I was appalled. Particularly since this comes on the heels of the Trump watches, victory perfume, sneakers, golf shoes, and the Trump bible.
Com’n man, have a little class is honestly what I thought.
You won the presidential race and this is how you celebrate? By being a huckster. Not a cheap one either.
A Racer Chrono presidential blue watch costs $2999 (and only 75 are available). Victory cologne and perfume for the “decisive and bold” is $199. A signature edition guitar, personally autographed, is priced at $10,000. High top Trump Commander 47 sneakers are $299.
Before all you Trump supporters get upset with me for berating the future president, let me say this. Donald Trump is a piker when it comes to using his elevated political position to make more than a few bucks on the side. But maybe he’s just getting warmed up.
Courtesy of an article by Erin Kuschner, I learned about the tens of millions our former presidents have made through book deals alone. As an author myself, I was more than a little envious but also chagrined. I want them to live comfortably, but do our former top executives need to have massive wealth? Their American dream must be bigger than mine.
Topping the list is Barack and Michelle Obama with a whopping $65 million for their memoirs. They also signed a lucrative deal with Netflix, but I was unable to find out their payment for that contract.
Bill Clinton received a $15 million advance for his memoir; Hillary Clinton was paid a $14 million advance for her book Hard Choices, which covers her time as secretary of state. Those book advances don’t include speaking fees: Bill charges between $250,000 and $500,000 and was paid as much as $750,000 for a speech in Hong Kong. As of 2016, Bill and Hillary had earned $153 million in speaking fees, according to a report by CNN.
When asked why he charges so much Clinton told NBC News: “I gotta pay the bills.”
George Bush received a $10 million advance for his memoir Decision Points. His 2017 book, Portraits of Courage, which features his paintings of U. S. service men and women was a best seller with the proceeds apparently going to charity. Good for you, George.
Both Ronald Reagen and Jimmy Carter earned book advances of $7 million. George H. W. Bush also received millions in speaking fees, despite being a wealthy man in his own right.
A coffee table picture book, Our Journey Together, which details Trump’s first presidency, grossed $20 million in less than two months when it went on sale in 2022. His book The Art of the Deal sold more than one million copies but only netted between $100,000 to one million for Trump.
No word on any new book deals for President Joe Biden when he leaves the White House. You may recall the dust-up about the classified documents he was keeping in his garage with his prized Corvette. Those documents were linked to an $8 million deal he received for three non-fiction books several years ago. I don’t see many speaking engagements in his future.
Should we care about these outlandish payments to former presidents? A New York Times editorial from 2007 sums up why it matters. It reports that when Harry Truman left the White House in 1953, historian David McCullough records, “he had no income or support of any kind from the federal government other than his Army pension of $112.56 a month. He was provided with no government funds for secretarial help or office space, not a penny of expense money.”
It seems that “Truman refused to cash in on his celebrity and influence as a former president. He turned down lucrative offers, such as the one from a Florida real-estate developer inviting him to become ‘chairman, officer, or stockholder, at a figure of not less than $100,000. He would not make commercial endorsements, accept consulting fees, or engage in lobbying.”
I want my former commanders-in-chief to live comfortably. But Harry S Truman had the right attitude.
“I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable,” Truman wrote, “that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency.”
Sad to say, that dignity is something we don’t seem to care much about these days. Even at the highest levels.
Maybe as a friend suggested, that once Trump has been reinstated as president, he will donate the proceeds of his sneaker and watch sales to charity and start a new trend in presidential payoffs. We can certainly hope.