In May 2025, online users shared a rumor claiming former U.S. President Barack Obama received a $22.9 million donation from the Venezuelan government for the construction of an apartment on top of his presidential library.
For example, on May 13, the manager of a Facebook page named Standing for America posted (archived) a meme displaying a picture of Obama with the text, "While Barack Obama was in office, the Venezuelan Government 'donated' $22.9 million to build an apartment for his personal use on top of his Presidential Library. Not one Democrat batted an eye." The caption further claimed, "Countries give gifts to presidents all the time. Bill Clinton has a 1999 Porsche in his garage from the President of Unified Germany." Other users also shared the rumor on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and X.
(Standing for America/Facebook)
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google found no evidence of Obama receiving a $22.9 million donation from the Venezuelan government, nor did any records confirm Clinton received a Porsche from a foreign nation.
Rather, the rumor originated in a post (archived) from the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page, which describes its content as satirical in nature. The page's bio (archived) reads, "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real." The photo included in the post itself displayed a label reading "S" for "satire."
(America's Last Line of Defense/Facebook)
Snopes reached out by email to a representative for Obama to ask if his office wished to comment on the rumor.
The fictional story spread in the days after President Donald Trump posted (archived) on his Truth Social account that the nation of Qatar offered the Department of Defense a "gift" of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 to be remodeled into a new, and allegedly temporary, Air Force One.
The Barack Obama Presidential Library website (archived) describes its existence as "the first fully digital Presidential library." In other words, one cannot build an apartment on a library that does not physically exist. Separately, the Obama Presidential Center website (archived) listed its scheduled (archived) opening date for 2026.
The America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page featured untrue stories about Clinton and others, including for example a post (archived) reading, "The $14 million apartment on the top of the Clinton Presidential Library, where the family stays when they're in Little Rock, was a GIFT from the King of Morocco to the US GOVERNMENT. Donations to Presidential Libraries are NOTHING NEW!" That post also displayed a small, but visible, satire label.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims in May 2025, including the assertion that Clinton received a $17 million helicopter from Saudi Arabia and a rumor that his vice president, Al Gore, accepted a $90 million custom Gulfstream jet from the sultan of Kuwait.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.