This is how they live now but below is what they where when they first came into office.
Remember this look when they came in to the White House.
The Obamas are “Becoming” — billionaires. The Barack Obama Foundation has seen its contributions soar
The launch of Michelle Obama’s cross-country book tour for her new memoir, “Becoming,” last week is just the latest marker on the road to fabulous wealth for the former first couple, who are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar brand.
In addition to a $65 million book advance and an estimated $50 million deal with Netflix, both of which she shares with husband Barack Obama, the former first lady is poised to rake in millions from appearances on her 10-city US tour and sales of merchandise connected to her autobiography.
And like her husband, Michelle Obama is currently in demand as a speaker for corporations and non-profits, commanding $225,000 per appearance, The Post has learned.
Forbes estimated the couple made $20.5 million in salaries and book royalties between 2005 — when Obama became a federal senator and they first arrived in Washington — and 2016. They are now worth more than $135 million.
And that figure does not include the cash they are raking in for public speaking.
In October 2017, Michelle Obama was a keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, a non-profit that promotes education and networking.
Obama did an on-stage interview with Hollywood producer and writer Shonda Rhimes in Philadelphia for an audience of 12,000.
The New York-based Harry Walker Agency Inc., which books both Obamas for speaking gigs, billed the Pennsylvania Conference for Women $225,000 in 2017, according to the non-profit’s most recent tax filings.
Barack Obama currently rakes in $400,000 per speech, and earned at least $1.2 million for three talks to Wall Street firms in 2017. The fees come on top of his $207,800 annual presidential pension, which he began receiving as soon as he left office.
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Michelle Obama’s memoir gets picked for Oprah’s book club
Months after leaving the White House, the former president agreed to speak at a health care conference organized by financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald. This was in addition to $800,000 that he earned for two speeches to Northern Trust Corp and the Carlyle Group.
“Becoming” is already set to turn into an international best seller. In the book, Michelle Obama reveals details of her personal life, such as the couples counseling she sought with her husband and her struggles after a miscarriage, describing how she went on to conceive her two daughters by in vitro fertilization.
In addition to its US launch, the book was released in Australia, Ireland, South Africa, the UK, India and New Zealand. It will also be published in 25 languages around the world, according to a press release from Penguin Random House, the book’s New York-based publisher.
Tickets for “A Conversation with Michelle Obama” at sports venues across the country have also become a hot commodity.
Prices for Obama’s appearance at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center next month currently range from $307 to $4,070, which includes a photo with Michelle Obama and a signed copy of “Becoming.”
In addition to cash from appearances and book sales, Obama will also reap the benefits of hawking 25 different items of merchandise connected to the book, many of which bear her likeness and feature inspirational messages.
The items include T-shirts and hoodies, a $20 “Find Your Voice” mug, and “Find Your Flame and Keep It Lit” candles, which retail for $35 each. Ten percent of the proceeds from the sales will go to the Global Girls Alliance, an initiative under the Barack Obama Foundation to provide education to adolescent girls around the world.
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Obamas ink production deal with Netflix
Barack Obama also donated some of the profits of his three bestselling books to charity.
According to Forbes, he donated $392,000 in royalties from a children’s book — “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters” — to the Fisher House Foundation between 2009 and 2015. The non-profit supports families of veterans.
He raked in a combined $8.8 million for “The Audacity of Hope,” published in 2006, and his children’s book, which was released in 2010. He also made nearly $7 million from “Dreams from My Father.”
In addition to their multi-million dollar literary empire, the couple is set to reap the benefits of a creative production deal they signed with Netflix earlier this year.
The multi-year $50 million deal calls on the Obamas “to produce a diverse mix of content, including the potential for scripted series, unscripted series, docuseries, documentaries and features,” which will be broadcast in 190 countries, according to a statement from the streaming service, which has 125 million subscribers around the globe.
Fox News Channel announced Wednesday it will support CNN’s lawsuit against the White House over the temporary suspension of White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” press credential, revealing the company will file an amicus brief in defense of the partisan network.
Fox News issued a statement accusing the White House of “weaponizing” Secret Service passes for reporters:
FOX News supports CNN in its legal effort to regain its White House reporter’s press credential. We intend to file an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court. Secret Service passes for working White House journalists should never be weaponized. While we don’t condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the President and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people.
In a brief statement shared to Twitter, CNN thanked Fox News for backing its lawsuit against the White House.
NBC and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists told CNN that they will be joining the brief in support of the network.
NAHJ
✔@NAHJ
We spoke last night with the legal team of @acosta/@cnn and will also be joining an amicus brief in support of the correspondent and the network. #PressFreedom#MoreLatinosInNews
CNN Communications
✔@CNNPR
NBC News will support CNN and @Acosta. Thank you @NBCNewsPR@NBCNews! https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1062740096447901698 …
According to Axios, the following news outlets are also joining the brief: The Associated Press, Bloomberg, First Look Media, Gannett, the New York Times, Politico, EW Scripps, USA Today Network, Washington Post, Press Freedom Defense Fund, and National Press Club.
JUST IN: Numerous news outlets, including NBC News, issue joint statement saying they will file briefs “to support CNN’s and Jim Acosta’s lawsuit” against the Trump admin. over its decision to revoke Acosta’s press pass.
Statement from @CBSNews: “CBS News supports the White House Correspondents Association (@WHCA) and CNN’s legal effort to restore access for its White House correspondent.”
The administration stripped Acosta of his pass to enter the White House following President Donald Trump’s contentious news conference last week, where Acosta refused to give up a microphone when the president said he didn’t want to hear anything more from him.
In response to the lawsuit, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: “this is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against his lawsuit.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association backed the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., district court.
“The president of the United States should not be in the business of arbitrarily picking the men and women who cover him,” said Oliver Knox, president of the correspondents’ group.
CNN said Acosta was given no warning of the action, and no recourse to appeal it. Acosta traveled to Paris to cover Trump’s visit there this weekend and, although given permission by the French government to cover a news event, the Secret Service denied him entrance, the company said.
“Without this credential, a daily White House correspondent like Acosta effectively cannot do his job,” CNN’s lawsuit said.
CNN asked for an injunction to immediately reinstate Acosta, as well as a hearing on the larger issue of barring a reporter.
Acosta has been a polarizing figure even beyond the distaste that Trump and his supporters have for him. The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, editorialized last week that Acosta’s encounter with Trump at the news conference “was less about asking questions and more about making statements. In doing so, the CNN White House reporter gave President Donald Trump room to critique Acosta’s professionalism.”
In an opinion-editorial published Wednesday, Breitbart News senior legal editor Ken Klukowski argued President Trump will the lawsuit because the “Constitution does not allow a federal court to issue this kind of order to the White House,” while the “First Amendment does not protect” Acosta’s actions.
Scientists behind a headline-grabbing climate study admitted they “really muffed” their paper.
Their study claimed to find 60 percent more warming in the oceans, but that was based on math errors.
The errors were initially spotted by scientist Nic Lewis, who called them “serious (but surely inadvertent) errors.”
The scientists behind a headline-grabbing global warming study did something that seems all too rare these days — they admitted to making mistakes and thanked the researcher, a global warming skeptic, who pointed them out.
“When we were confronted with his insight it became immediately clear there was an issue there,” study co-author Ralph Keeling told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday.
Their study, published in October, used a new method of measuring ocean heat uptake and found the oceans had absorbed 60 more heat than previously thought. Many news outlets relayed the findings, but independent scientist Nic Lewis quickly found problems with the study.
“We’re grateful to have it be pointed out quickly so that we could correct it quickly,” Keeling said.
In a statement posted online Friday, Keeling said “the combined effect of these two corrections to have a small impact on our calculations of overall heat uptake.” However, Keeling said the errors mean there are “larger margins of error” than they initially thought.
So, while Keeling said they still found there’s more warming than previously thought, there’s too much uncertainty to support their paper’s central conclusion that oceans absorbed 60 percent more heat than current estimates show.
“Our error margins are too big now to really weigh in on the precise amount of warming that’s going on in the ocean,” Keeling told The Union Tribune. “We really muffed the error margins.”
Keeling and his co-authors used the study to debut a new way of estimating ocean heat uptake by measuring the volume of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere. Scientists are still intrigued by this method, but all the kinks need to be worked out.
“So far as I can see, their method vastly underestimates the uncertainty,” Lewis told The Washington Post in an interview Tuesday, “as well as biasing up significantly, nearly 30 percent, the central estimate.”
Lewis pointed out the errors in Keeling’s study in a blog post published Nov. 6 on climate scientist Judith Curry’s website. Lewis wrote that “[j]ust a few hours of analysis and calculations … was sufficient to uncover apparently serious (but surely inadvertent) errors in the underlying calculations.”
Lewis’s corrections were quickly confirmed by University of Colorado professor Roger Pielke Jr. Pielke called Keeling’s acceptance and willingness to correct the mistakes a “lesson in graciousness.”
Climate skeptic uncovers scientific error, upends major ocean warming study
Scientists with UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Princeton University recently walked back a claim made last month that oceans had been heating up dramatically faster than the…
“Unfortunately, we made mistakes here,” Keeling told WaPo. “I think the main lesson is that you work as fast as you can to fix mistakes when you find them.”
President Donald Trump finally reacted on Tuesday to French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech condemning nationalism, noting his low approval ratings.
“The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26 percent, and an unemployment rate of almost 10 percent,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Despite Trump’s embrace of the word “nationalist” to describe his political thought, Macron warned the world that “patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism” during his speech marking the 100th year anniversary of the end of World War I.
Trump suggested that Macron was trying to distract from his unpopularity.
“He was just trying to get onto another subject,” Trump wrote. “By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so! MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!”
The president also criticized a number of issues facing France and the United States, including wine tariffs and military spending.
The president noted that both countries made excellent wine, but said that France had higher tariffs than the United States.
“The problem is that France makes it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wines into France, and charges big Tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines, and charges very small Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Not fair, must change!”
He also ridiculed Macron for suggesting that Europe would have to build an army to protect itself from China, Russia, and the United States.
“How did that work out for France?” Trump wrote referring to World War I and World War II. “They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26%, and an unemployment rate of almost 10%. He was just trying to get onto another subject. By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so!……..
On Trade, France makes excellent wine, but so does the U.S. The problem is that France makes it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wines into France, and charges big Tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines, and charges very small Tariffs. Not fair, must change!
Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker does not recuse himself from oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, then Democrats will seek to tie protections for the investigation into the spending bill.
“We Democrats, House and Senate, will attempt to add to must-pass legislation, in this case the spending bill, legislation that would prevent Mr. Whitaker from interfering with the Mueller investigation” should Whitaker not recuse, Schumer said Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Schumer said he was concerned about the past statements Whitaker made as a commentator on CNN about the investigation. Whitaker has argued that cutting Mueller’s budget would be a way to end the probe, that investigating President Trump’s finances would be a “red line” and that he believes there was “no collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Separated at birth.
“The appointment of Mr. Whitaker should concern every American – Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative – who believes in rule of law and justice,” Schumer said.” “He has already prejudged the Mueller situation. If he stays there, he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibiting Mueller or firing Mueller, so Congress has to act.”
Schumer, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other key Democrats, are sending a letter to Lee Lofthus, the top ethics officer at the Justice Department, to question Lofthus if he had advised Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the Mueller probe.
Schumer, however, stopped short of saying he would risk a government shutdown if Mueller protection’s weren’t added to a spending bill.
What about Eric Holder’s corruption when he was over the DOJ.
“I believe there will be enough of our Republican colleagues who will join us. There’s no reason we shouldn’t add this and avoid a constitutional crisis,” Schumer said. “We’ll see what happens down the road.”
With the pushback from top Democrats, numerous Republican lawmakers have come to Whitaker’s defense. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Whitaker was “appointed legally” and there was no reason for him to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation.
“You don’t recuse somebody because they have opinions different than the people they’re overseeing,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “The bottom line here is Mueller will be allowed to do the job without political interference by Mr. Whitaker.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who is likely to take over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee come January, said on Sunday that if Whitaker doesn’t recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, then the acting attorney general will be subpoenaed by the panel.
“Our very first witness after January 3, we will subpoena, or we will summon, if necessary subpoena, Mr. Whitaker,” Nadler said on “State of the Union.” “The questions we will ask him will be about his expressed hostility to the investigation.”
Nadler added: “How he can possibly supervise it when he’s expressed, when he’s come out and said that the investigation is invalid.”
The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said that protecting Mueller’s investigation will be a top priority should he take over as the panel’s chair come January.
“Well, the very first thing, obviously, is to protect the Mueller investigation. The President’s dismissal of Attorney General Sessions and his appointment of Whitaker, who’s a complete political lackey, is a real threat to the integrity of that investigation,” he said, adding that the investigation is “of utmost importance.”
Thislittle sissy has never shot a gun or thrown a punch. If Hitler was alive he would take over France again.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced nationalism during an Armistice Day centennial observance in Paris on Sunday.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is treason,” Macron said, according to a Euronews translator.
Macron spoke in front of world leaders including President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“If we think our interests may only come first and we don’t care for others, it is a treason of our values, a betrayal of all moral values,” he said. “We must remember this.”
Macron said that the moral values of France helped them fight for the future of their country.
He praised the world leaders that formed the first League of Nations, after World War I.
“They imagined the first international corporation, the dismantling of empires, and redefined borders, and dreamed at the time of a union, a political union of Europe,” Macron said.
He lamented that the spirit of revenge and humiliation after World War I sparked renewed nationalism that led to World War II.
Macron defended organizations like the European Union and the United Nations, hailing their ideals despite their “setbacks” over the years. He called for a new era of science-built progress.
“Together we can rise to the challenges of poverty, global warming, disease, inequality, and ignorance,” he said. “And we can win this together, because victory is possible together, together we can break away from the countertruths and injustices, we can counter the extremes which would drive us to war.”
In an interview with CNN, Macron continued his condemnation of nationalism but was hesitant to claim the “globalist” label.
“I would say I’m a patriot,” he said, but added: “I’m not a believer in a sort of globalism without any differentiation. I think it doesn’t — it’s very inconsistent, and it’s extremely — it makes our people very nervous. But I’m not a nationalist, which is very different for me from being a patriot.”
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned of the dangers of rising nationalism as he addressed Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and other world leaders at a ceremony in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the first world war armistice.
As more than 60 heads of state and dignitaries gathered in the rain near Paris’s tomb of the unknown soldier to mark a century since guns fell silent on the western front, Macron delivered a pointedly political speech, warning that “old demons” were resurfacing and threatened the fragile peace.
Later Macron commented that it was great to have world leaders at the Arc de Triomphe for the first world war memorial but asked how the photos would be seen in the future: “A symbol of lasting peace? Or the last moment of unity before the world falls into disorder? That depends on us.”
The centrist pro-European Macron used his commemoration speech to say that nations must find new ways to build peace together in the face of dangerous, rising populism and “selfish” nationalism.
Armistice Day: moving events mark 100 years since end of first world war – as it happened
Describing himself as a patriot, Macron said: “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying ‘our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values.
“Old demons are resurfacing. History sometimes threatens to take its tragic course again and compromise our hope of peace. Let us vow to prioritise peace over everything.”
He said the traces of the first world war had never been erased from Europenor the Middle East and called on countries to stand together in “goodwill” against climate change, poverty and inequality. “Let us build our hopes rather than playing our fears against each other.”
Trump, who said recently he was proud to be a nationalist, looked on alongside Putin, the Russian president, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and scores of other leaders, but not the British prime minister, Theresa May, who was at the ceremony at the Cenotaph in London.

Armistice Day is marked around the world – in pictures
After the commemorations at the Arc de Triomphe, key world leaders had lunch at the Élysée Palace – a moment of frantic diplomacy for Macron. Trump was seated between Macron and the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, and Merkel was seated next to Putin. The Spanish king Felipe was also at the table, and French observers marvelled that May was absent from the gathering. She was represented instead by David Lidington, who was not at the top table.
The leaders had met at the Arc de Triomphe for the armistice ceremony just after 11am. Most heads of state walked slowly together for the last few metres, standing shoulder to shoulder under black umbrellas. This slow walk under pouring rain was seen as a gesture for peace. Both Trump and Putin were absent as both arrived separately at the Arc de Triomphe in their own security conveys.
As Trump’s motorcade arrived, a topless activist from the Femen group ran out with “Fake” and “Peace” written on her chest, shouting “fake peace maker!” She was removed by police.
Putin was the last to arrive. He shook hands with several leaders but his warmest greeting was for Trump, giving him a smile and thumbs up and patting the US president’s arm.
Trump had been expected to meet Putin for talks during the visit, but will instead sit down with him formally later this month, most likely at a world leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires.
Trump had been criticised at home for cancelling a visit to an American cemetery outside Paris on Saturday because of bad weather. Rain grounded the helicopter Trump had planned to take, so he cancelled the trip, officials said. He instead visited a different American cemetery on Sunday afternoon.
Macron, Merkel and the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres opened a new peace forum in Paris, designed to boost multilateralism and the cooperation between nations at a moment of tension. Merkel warned that “lack of communication and unwillingness to compromise” could have terrible consequences for world peace.
Trump, who while pushing an “America First” agenda has called into question multilateralist organisations, was not going to attend the conference. Nor was Putin expected.
Some anti-Trump protestors gathered at a square in central Paris, where the Trump baby balloon seen in London was on display.
