I Aint Saying the President is a Gold Digger
What percent of Presidents were wealthy? were broke?
With Kanye writing a mea culpa in WSJ, the one you know that focuses on money, of all papers, about his past hateful thoughts, I started listening to Kanye again and heard this song while driving this morning.
And when I sat down to write my daily thoughts on this fine Presidents Day, I remember seeing former President Obama courtside at the All-Star game getting hugs and pats from one multi-millionaire to another.
We know how the NBA stars got their wealth: through talent and hustle.
But how did a President who was a community organizer become worth about 100 million?
Was it from the Aliens who exist, apparently?
Or selling the services of the USA for gain, or payback.
Not my words, by the way, but Harry S Truman, a fellow Democrat
“You want the office of the president, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people, and it's not for sale."
Not sure, but I used the prompt below to find out who was rich/poor before becoming president and who became rich or poor afterwards.
What I did not do was make a judgment of their contribution to US society.
That is for you to decide.
Because, oddly enough, being president is no guarantee of monetary success or a legacy.
Just look at how many presidents do not have living heirs. Or how many went bankrupt.
As I am wont to say, our great leaders lived for a vision of the USA that no other country can compare to, and once their contribution to history was made, they “fade away.”
It’s almost prophetic.
The best result I found was in Claude AI
The prompt is:
Analyze all U.S. presidents and categorize them by:
Inherited wealth vs self-made wealth vs modest background
Financial failures or bankruptcies before or after office
Net worth change before presidency vs after presidency
Whether family members entered politics afterward
Then identify economic patterns across eras and what this suggests about the presidency as a wealth-creation platform.
Out of 45 presidents, 9 encountered financial hardships
That is 20%
And 11 saw significant net worth, or 24.4%
So as we enjoy or can’t wait for kids to start school again, just realize the President is in the same boat as we are
And making the same decision.
So I’m not saying any President is or was a Gold Digger, but what I am saying is Let’s be thankful for the leaders of the past and our current leader and try to make our America the best it can be for future generations.
By looking to our best nature and always watching JFK's inaugural speech as impactful today as it was then.