Fact Check: Did Barack Obama charge Biden administration $18M per year for consulting?
WASHINGTON, DC: Former President Barack Obama was in the news earlier in 2025 as rumors swirled that his marriage to former First Lady Michelle Obama was in jeopardy and a divorce was in the cards.
Recently, Obama's name circulated again on social media, but this time for different reasons. A rumor claimed that Obama charged the Biden administration $18 million a year for "consulting". But is there any truth to this? Let's find out below.
Claim: Barack Obama charged Joe Biden's administration $18 million a year for 'consulting'
In April, an online rumor claimed that Barack Obama charged former President Joe Biden's administration $18 million a year for "consulting".
The claim spread across social media platforms such as Facebook, X, TikTok, and Threads.
A user shared a post on Facebook that read, "Remember when Obama said he wishes he could find someone to run another term for him, that he could control.. then they literally did it right infront of us??????? Well Breaking News.. DOGE found payments to Obama for $18 million A YEAR for "consulting" from Biden and his administration."
@elonmusk Hey Elon please do me a favor and go after the 18 million a year we spent on Obama consulting. We pay him for the rest of his life why should we double pay him to rip us off more? Please put him in https://t.co/IxuxWbeRia me that is misappropriating founds.
— Richard Hagan (@Richard35444905) April 9, 2025
Meanwhile, an X user wrote, "@elonmusk Hey Elon, please do me a favor and go after the 18 million a year we spent on Obama consulting. We pay him for the rest of his life, why should we double pay him to rip us off more? Please put him in jail. To me, that is misappropriating funds."
False: The claim originated from satire website
The claim made in the online rumor is false as it originated from an article by the Dunning-Kruger Times, a self-described satire outlet.
Moreover, the 'About' page on the Dunning-Kruger Times website states that its content is 'parody, satire, and tomfoolery', according to Snopes.
Furthermore, there was no proof that Obama's alleged company 'Hope & Invoice LLC', which the article mentioned, existed.
Snopes reported that the article also had an out-of-context quote attributed to House Speaker Mike Johnson and also mentioned that the story first appeared on Fox News, and a Fox News spokesperson confirmed that any such news never aired.
Proof: The satire website's article contains several inconsistencies
The article in the Dunning-Kruger Times contains several inconsistencies.
The headline of the article claimed that Obama charged the Biden administration "$18 million a year" for consulting services, but in the first sentence, it changed to "$18 million over four years".
Similarly, search engine searches showed no trace of Hope & Invoice LLC, the company that the article claimed Obama allegedly used to send the invoices, per Snopes.
Moreover, the article also claimed that Johnson called the alleged consultancy payments "unprecedented corruption".
Notably, Johnson did say these words, but in 2024, not 2025, per reports. Originally, Johnson referred to efforts among Republicans to gather evidence to impeach the then-president, Joe Biden.
Furthermore, the article claimed that reports of Obama's alleged earnings had elicited a string of reactions from Republicans such as "Obama is running the show," "Biden is just a puppet," and "Kamala eats crayons", Snopes reported.
Interestingly, the first two remarks were talking points about Biden and Obama, but search engine searches did not show any credible examples of officials quoted as saying that Kamala Harris "eats crayons".
