In early April 2025, a rumor circulated online that former U.S. President Barack Obama charged the Biden administration $18 million a year for "consulting."
(Facebook user Reagan Was Right)
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), X (archived), TikTok (archived) and Threads (archived), and Snopes readers wrote in to ask if it was true.
However, the claim came from an article by the Dunning-Kruger Times, a self-described satire outlet that was the source of multiple rumors we've investigated in the past.
Users shared a post (archived) promoting the article from the outlet's Facebook page thousands of times. The outlet had recently removed some indications of its satirical nature from its Facebook page America's Last Line of Defense, including a "Satire/Parody" tag that formerly appeared in the page's Intro section. An "About" page on the Dunning-Kruger Times website states that its content is "parody, satire, and tomfoolery."
Additionally, as we'll explain below, there was no proof that Obama's alleged company "Hope & Invoice LLC," which the article mentioned, existed.
A spokesperson for the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama said via email that it did not issue the statement the Dunning-Kruger Times cited.
Breaking down the article's claims
The first inconsistency in the Dunning-Kruger Times article that indicated it was less than true came in the first sentence of the piece. In the headline, the outlet claimed that Obama charged the Biden administration "$18 million a year" for consulting services. However, in the article's first sentence, that figure became "$18 million over four years."
Additionally, searches on popular search engines revealed no trace of Hope & Invoice LLC — according to the article, the name of the company that Obama allegedly used to send the invoices — aside from the satirical article.
The article also attributed quotes to Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives.
According to the article, Johnson called the alleged consultancy payments "unprecedented corruption." Johnson did in fact say these exact words, according to reports — but in 2024, not 2025. In their original context, Johnson's words referred to efforts among Republicans to gather evidence to impeach Joe Biden, who was president at the time.
In addition to the out-of-context Johnson quote, the satirical outlet claimed that reports of Obama's alleged earnings had elicited a string of reactions from Republicans, including "Obama is running the show," "Biden is just a puppet" and "Kamala eats crayons."
The two former allegations were in fact popular talking points with regards to Biden and Obama.
Searches on popular search engines, however, did not find any credible examples of officials quoted as saying that Kamala Harris, Biden's vice president, "eats crayons." We have not independently verified that no Republicans have ever made this claim.
The article also attributed a statement on Obama's alleged consultancy work to "Obama's team." According to the statement, Obama provided "strategic support and communications guidance" to Biden's team. The alleged statement said, "Any compensation was standard, reasonable, and well within precedent — unlike giving a pardon to your bestie minutes before the FBI shows up."
"Bestie" is not normally a word used by communications professionals in public statements. The Office of Barack and Michelle Obama said via email it did not issue the statement.
A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that the outlet did not run coverage of Biden and Obama featuring the phrase "Shadow president" as the satirical article claimed.
Additionally, the article claimed that two hashtags — #ObamaGate2 and #ConsultantinChief — circulated on Truth Social following reports of Obama's alleged earnings. Unfortunately, Truth Social's internal search engine could not produce relevant search results, meaning it was not possible to independently verify this claim.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims stemming from the Dunning-Kruger Times