Barack Obama is reportedly set to be paid $400,000 for an upcoming speech at a conference sponsored by a Wall Street investment bank.
According to reports by Fox Business and the Financial Times, both of whom cite unnamed sources familiar with the arrangement, the former President will collect the fee for his appearance at Cantor Fitzgerald’s annual health care conference in September.
Coins2Day has reached out to Obama and will update this story if we receive a response.
About a year ago, Obama—who was a vocal critic of big banks during his presidency—poked fun of his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for three speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs. “If this material goes well, I’ll use it at Goldman Sachs next year,” he quipped at the White House Correspondents Dinner. “Earn me some serious Tubmans.”
Clinton had received $225,000 each for those Goldman appearances. Presidential campaign rivals Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both repeatedly cited the speeches to criticize her ties to Wall Street.
On Monday, Obama made his first public appearance since leaving the White House, when he delivered a speech at the University of Chicago. In the speech, he partly contemplated what to do for his next job before concluding, “the single most important thing I can do is to help in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world.”
He then went on to list several problems that still need solving like economic inequality, climate change, and violence. Also among them, was the subject of money and politics. “Because of money and politics, special interests dominate the debates in Washington in ways that don’t match up with what the broad majority of Americans feel,” Obama said.
In February, both Barack and Michelle Obama landed deals with Penguin Random House to each write their own upcoming books. Although Penguin did not disclose terms of the agreement, bidding in an auction for global publishing rights reportedly reached more than $60 million, which would be a record sum for U.S. Presidential memoirs. The Obamas have said they are planning to donate a “significant portion of their author proceeds to charity,” including the Obama Foundation.
