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The current presidential salary is not too shabby at $400,000 a year -- and for commanders in chief, retirement comes with a six-figure pension. For most presidents, the real money comes after they leave office through speaking engagements and book deals. The big exception is Donald Trump, who was already a very rich man when he entered the Oval Office.

Check Out: How the Stock Market Performed Under Each PresidentWhoa: Crazy Financial Perks of Being President

But, is he the richest president still alive? Take a look at the current net worths of all living U.S. presidents.

Last updated: Aug. 4, 2021

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President Joe Biden spent decades in politics, but he didn't make any real money until his time off between White House stints when Donald Trump was in office. His net worth skyrocketed after he finished his VP term thanks to lucrative book deals and speaking engagements, Forbes reported. That includes a 2017 book deal worth a reported $8 million, according to Publisher's Weekly.

According to Forbes, Joe and Jill Biden earned $11.1 million by the end of 2017, then $4.6 million in 2018, $1 million in 2019 and $630,000 in 2020. Although he earned $17.3 million in total during his four years out of office, the president's net worth is much lower, mostly because of taxes and charity.

Click through to see how much Biden is worth now.

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Donald Trump was the first billionaire president and remains the only billionaire to have held office today. As always, the majority of his fortune resides in his New York City real estate portfolio, but his winery, golf courses and global branding and licensing operation all chip in, as well.

Click through to see just how rich his prime real estate and other business ventures have made Trump.

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Post-presidential life has been lucrative for Barack Obama. He's commanded $400,000 speaking fees and signed book deals worth $65 million, Newsweek reported. Obama, along with his wife Michelle, also signed a production deal with Netflix in 2018 for an undisclosed amount, Variety reported -- though based on previous deals the streaming giant had made, it's likely worth north of $100 million. His 2020 memoir "A Promised Land" sold nearly 890,000 copies in 24 hours, according to the AP.

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Click through to see just how rich all of these deals have made Obama.

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Like Trump, George W. Bush was already wealthy when he took office. He earned millions as the founder and CEO of an oil and gas exploration firm and as part-owner of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers, Fox Business reported. He continued to add to his wealth after his presidency was over through book deals and speaking fees.

Click through to see how much Bush is worth now.

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Bill Clinton left the White House poorer than when he went into it. Because of defense attorneys fees for scandal investigations, impeachment proceedings and an action to suspend his Arkansas law license, Clinton ended his term as president with $16 million in debt, CNBC reported. However, he was able to turn things around with income from speeches and book deals.

In his first year out of the Oval Office, Clinton earned $13.7 million in speaking and writing fees, according to his tax return. And by 2016, Clinton and his wife, Hillary, had racked up $153 million in speaking fees, CNN reported. In total, Forbes reported that the Clintons had raked in $240 million during their first 15 post-White House years.

Click through to find out how much Clinton is worth today.

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Unlike many other former presidents, Jimmy Carter eschewed the big-money speeches and corporate board invitations after leaving the White House, choosing instead to return to his simple life in Plains, Georgia, The Washington Post reported. According to The Post, "Carter is the only president in the modern era to return full time to the house he lived in before he entered politics a two-bedroom rancher assessed at $167,000, less than the value of the armored Secret Service vehicles parked outside." Still, he has added to his post-presidency wealth with book deals, plus the over-$200,000 annual pension all ex-presidents receive.

The oldest living president in history, the 96-year-old Nobel Peace Prize Winner has outlived all other occupants of the Oval Office who came before, according to CNN. The No. 2 oldest president in history, George H.W. Bush, died at the age of 94 in 2018.

Click through to see how much this modest former president is worth.

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Andrew Lisa contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Rich Are Barack Obama, Joe Biden and All the Other Living US Presidents?

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How Rich Are Barack Obama, Joe Biden and All the Other Living US Presidents? - Yahoo Finance

Washington, D.C. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced they will introduce the Cambodia Democracy and Human Rights Act to hold the Cambodian government accountable as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen continues to engage in human rights abuses. Under Hun Sens leadership, the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party has maintained one-party control of the government, in violation of the Cambodian constitution, through corruption, banning political opposition, political persecutions, repressive laws, and cracking down on free speech and the media. The primary opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, has been banned and many of its leaders, including Khem Sokha and Sam Rainsy, have been persecuted, jailed, or exiled. Furthermore, credible evidence exists that Hun Sen has welcomed the Peoples Republic of China to operate military installations in Cambodiaa violation of the countrys constitution.Rubio is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights.Under the authoritarian rule of dictator Hun Sen, Cambodia continues to backslide after making progress in earlier decades toward democratization, Rubio said. Im proud to co-lead this bipartisan effort, which seeks to hold Hun Sen accountable for his crackdown against political opponents, Radio Free Asia, among others.The Cambodian People deserve what was promised to them in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements a representative democracy that reflects the popular will, not oppressive single party rule, Markey said. This legislation makes clear that the United States will not stand by as Hun Sen and his cronies corrupt Cambodian democracy, persecute and jail opposition and political activists, target free speech and independent media, and enrich themselves through rampant corruption."Let's be clear what little is left of Cambodian democracy is in serious danger. An oppressive ruler is violating Cambodias constitution and arresting, threatening, and harassing political opponents and peaceful activists," Durbin said. "Through the bipartisan Cambodia Democracy and Human Rights Act, my colleagues and I are standing together against Prime Minister Hun Sen's blatant human rights violations and calling for sanctions against those who undermine a better future for the Cambodian people.The Cambodia Democracy and Human Rights Act:

Excerpt from:
Rubio, Markey, and Durbin Announce Legislation to Hold Cambodian Government Officials Accountable for Undermining Democracy and Committing Human...

Governments, even democratic ones, are often ineffective or simply bad. Elections sometimes produce uninspiring results, particularly when a patchwork of parties forms an unwieldy coalition government that struggles to get much of anything done. This doesnt mean it should be overthrown. Nor should the United States ignore coup attempts staged in the name of bypassing the messiness of democracy. Yet in Tunisia, this is what the Biden administration appears to be doing, revealing the widening gulf between American words and deeds.

On Sunday, Tunisian President Kais Saied, who is supposed to share power with Parliament and a prime minister, suspended the former and dismissed the latter. In case anyone doubted his intentions, Saiedaddressed the nationwhile flanked by top military and security officials. On Monday, the army surrounded Parliament andblocked legislatorsfrom entering the building. Most Americans probably dont care that Tunisia isor, perhaps more precisely, wasthe lone success story of the Arab Spring. But the atmospherics of the story might resonate. A president longing to be a strongman is something that we in the United States recently experienced. As a long-standing democracy, America had institutions that rose to the challenge and restrained former President Donald Trumpsauthoritarian instincts. Young, fragile democracies are rarely so lucky.

From the very start of his presidency, Joe Biden identified the struggle between democratic and authoritarian governments as the central challenge of both the present and future. As heput itin his first press conference as president: It is clear, absolutely clear that this is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies. This lofty rhetoric was somewhat surprising, especially for a man who had viewed the 2011 Arab uprisings with evident skepticism. In one memorable moment, just two weeks before the Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak fell amid mass protests, Bidensaid: Look, Mubarak has been an ally I would not refer to him as a dictator.

Believing in the power and possibility of democracy is easy in theory. The problem with democracy in practice is that it is never quite as good as its proponents hope it might be. The same can be said for how the United States responds to breaches of democracy in the Middle East. Despite ostensibly being on the side of popular rule, the White House has so far refused to take sides in Tunisia, instead expressing concern over the developments there. White House Press Secretary Jen Psakiinformed reportersthat administration officials were in touch with their Tunisian counterparts to learn more about the situation, urge calm, and support Tunisian efforts to move forward in line with democratic principles. (After Egypts 2013 coup, it was Psaki whoinfamously said, We have determined we are not going to make a determination about whether to call it a coup.)

In the Middle East, Tunisias crisis is the first real test of Bidens professed commitment to anew democracy doctrine. During the unusual presidency of Donald Trump, Americans could easily forget that sustaining a gap between rhetoric and policy was a storied U.S. tradition. In his unapologetic disregard for supporting human rights and democracy abroad, Trump offered a natural experiment. The difference wasnt so much that he couldnt be bothered, but more that it didnt occur to him to be bothered in the first place. For the first time in decades, the gap between words and deeds closed considerably. The United States, under Trump, had becomelesshypocritical. Dissidents no longer had to wonder if the United States would come to their aid. Under no illusions about American interest in their plight, they could adapt their activism accordingly and focus exclusively on their own local context. In his frank disregard, Trump was simply incapable of betraying them.

Under Joe Biden, America is speaking in terms of values and morality once again, both at home and abroad. Other countries, particularly weak ones, do not have the luxury of high-minded idealism. To pretend, in other words, is a privilege, one that America has insisted on and even earned. Its unrivaled power allows it two things: the ability to have ideals but also the ability to ignore them. For the United States, the charge of hypocrisy is effective precisely because it speaks to something true: We would like to be better, but we cant.

Butwhycant we? Why cant we thwart a slow-motion coup in Tunisia, a relatively remote country where the risks of being too bold are minimal? Unlike Egypt, the Middle Easts most populous nation, Tunisia cant claim to be central to U.S. regional objectives, such as the promotion of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (howeverimaginary such a solution might be).

A related question is to what extent the United States can actually influence the internal affairs of faraway countries. Is there much Biden can do? The short answer is yes. If Tunisias president doesnt begin reversing course, the Biden administration can threaten a fullnot a partialsuspension of aid. Partial aid suspensions dont generally work, because they confuse and dilute American leverage. They are also self-undermining, because they communicate to authoritarian leaders that U.S. officials are hedging their bets and unwilling to follow through on their own stated commitments. Half measures can be the worst of both worldsthey anger target governments while failing to accomplish much besides virtue signaling to the foreign-policy community. If youre going to piss off an ally, at least make it count.

To be sure, threatening an aid suspension is risky. But all bold policy action is risky (otherwise it wouldnt be bold). We also know thatnotthreatening an aid suspension seems almost certain to lead to an undemocratic resulta continuation of Tunisias current course of elevating a would-be strongman over Parliament and other constitutional constraints. So one option, while risky, is considerably more promising than the other. Some observers legitimately worry that suspending assistance to the Tunisian government might backfire. But this perspective misunderstands the direction of leverage; Tunisia needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs Tunisia. The Biden administration should of course coordinate any such effort with the European Union and individual member states. Considering Europes proximity to and influence in Tunisia, any pressure campaign is likely to fail without European buy-in.

Also capable of playing a decisive role is the International Monetary Fund, which has invested in bailing out Tunisias battered economy (exacerbated by some of theworst per capita COVID-19 death ratesin the world). The IMFsArticles of Agreementimpose no political conditions; autocrats and democrats alike are eligible for support. Even so, the U.S. and European nations, as the largest shareholders, can exercise their voting rights as they see fit. There is precedent for attaching conditions to prospective financial-support packages. During Egypts brief democratic opening in 2012 and 2013, the IMFrequestedthat the elected Islamist government secure broad support, including from opposition parties, for an IMF deal. In short, the claim that President Biden lacks sufficient leverage to pressure the Tunisian government simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

I realize that this may be a losing battle. To be disappointed is to be realistic. The Biden administration is unlikely to act boldly, however bold its rhetoric has been up until this moment. In a small, obscure Arab country, then, a surprise coup attempt may markafter a short interregnumthe return of American hypocrisy.

Read more here:
Tunisia, democracy, and the return of American hypocrisy - Brookings Institution

A major Democratic nonprofit group is taking aim at President Biden in a new television ad, urging the president to take a more aggressive and concrete stand on overhauling the filibuster to pass federal voting legislation.

The ad, aired by a group called End Citizens United and Let America Vote Action Fund, is the first to publicly call out the president by name on the issue and is yet another sign of growing tension between the White House and left-leaning voting rights groups over the federal response to a wave of new laws governing elections from states with Republican-controlled legislatures this year.

The ad, which will begin airing on Friday, is centered on comments by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made at a 1963 news conference. In those remarks, the civil rights leader denounced the filibuster, a procedural tool that requires a supermajority of 60 votes to bring bills to a final vote. Its use has often stymied major legislation.

In the ad, as the screen flickers between long voting lines in the 1960s and more recent elections, King says: Senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting and certainly they would not want the majority of people to vote because they know they do not represent the majority of the American people.

The group said it would spend $1.1 million on the ad, which will air on broadcast and cable television in Washington, D.C.; Michigan; Pennsylvania; and Wisconsin, including during Olympics broadcasts.

This moment calls for presidential leadership, and were asking President Biden to fight like heck and use every tool available to him, including using his relationships in the Senate, to call for a reform to the filibuster to protect this sacred right, said Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United and Let America Vote Action Fund.

The president has called on Congress to pass a federal voting rights law, including in an impassioned speech last month in Philadelphia in which he called restrictive voting laws in states like Georgia, Florida and Iowa the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.

But he has stopped short of publicly calling for a change to the filibuster, which would almost certainly be necessary to pass any kind of voting legislation in the Senate, where both parties hold 50 seats and Vice President Kamala Harris can break ties.

The ad closes with a clear directive: President Biden, please, tell the Senate: Reform the filibuster. Everything is at stake.

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Democratic Group's Ad Pushes Biden on Voting Rights and Filibuster - The New York Times

Jan. 6, 2021 will be remembered tragically as one of the worst days in the history of the United States.

Five persons died after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to overturn the certified results of the presidential election, which had been won by Joe Biden. More than 140 police officers were injured in the vicious attack.

The injuries suffered by these officers were horrific, including broken ribs and concussions. One officer was beaten with an American flag pole. Many are still trying to recover from the physical and psychological trauma.

Hundreds of suspects have been charged with participating in this terrible assault on our democracy, and sadly, two of the suspects have connections to Fontana:

A Fontana resident, Daniel Rodriguez, 38, was arrested by the FBI on March 31 for allegedly injuring a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer with an electroshock weapon.

A former deputy police chief in Fontana, Alan Hostetter, 56, was one of six men from California arrested on June 10 and charged with various federal offenses, including conspiracy, obstructing an official proceeding, and unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds. Hostetter now resides in San Clemente.

It is difficult to comprehend the actions of rioters who, while claiming to love the U.S. and its freedoms, were enthusiastically showing their contempt for the rule of law.

----- INJULY, during a House select hearing, four officers provided testimony of the physical and verbal abuse they endured that day. One of those officers, Michael Fanone, said that he was "grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country." He suffered a heart attack as a result of the violence.

And yet, after the hearing, television personalities Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham had the audacity to mock Fanone during their programs. The obnoxious comments by Carlson and Ingraham were disgraceful and must be repudiated by all true Americans who show respect to police officers and our system of justice.

As Lynda Williams, the national president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said in a statement, the four officers who testified "should be embraced, supported, believed and above all praised for their courage to push past the terror and torment they suffered on Jan. 6 to their resounding triumph over threats, over treason, over betrayal to exemplify bravery, honor, sacrifice, integrity."

Fortunately, the heroic officers at the Capitol were able to stop the raging thugs and ultimately preserve our democracy. And now, we all need to work together to make sure that the awful events that transpired on Jan. 6 will never happen again.

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It's very important to defend the police who saved our democracy - Fontana Herald-News