What do retired presidents do? Obama’s options

New York

When his presidency ends at noon on January 20, Barack Obama will be a relatively young man of 55, likely affording him several remaining years of productive life.

What will the former leader of the world’s most powerful country do with that time?

Visit Kenya, for one thing.

While no dates have been set for a post-presidential trip to his father’s homeland, Mr Obama did promise in Nairobi 18 months ago that he and his family would come again. And they might return more than once in the decades ahead.

Speaking at a joint news conference with President Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr Obama responded to a question about his retirement plans by saying: “Here’s what I can guarantee. I’ll be back.”

His wife, Michelle, and their two children, Malia and Sasha, will also return to Kenya, Mr Obama added, “because they have a great love for this country and its people and its beauty.” He also noted that other relations live in Kenya.

Future visits may not be only for the purposes of reunions and relaxation, Mr Obama suggested. “I’m not going to stop being interested in the young people of Kenya and the young people of Africa, and developing the talent and the leaders — talented leaders and entrepreneurs that are going to help make this country and the world prosper.”

That comment referred indirectly to his six-year-old Young African Leaders Initiative. More than 2,000 Africans aged 25 to 35 have taken courses at US universities and met with US business leaders as part of an annual venture that some analysts regard as one of the most successful and forward-looking of Mr Obama’s Africa-related endeavours.

The first African-American president has spoken on other occasions about also working with youth of colour in the United States.

In 2014, Mr Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper, a mentoring programme for young non-white men. “We are in this for the long haul,” he pledged last year. “This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency, but for the rest of my life.”

Much of Mr Obama’s first year out of office is expected to be spent writing his presidential memoirs. And he can look forward to being paid several million dollars for that work.

WRITTEN THREE BOOKS

The president has written three previous books — “Dreams from My Father” (2004), about his biracial identity and early career; “The Audacity of Hope” (2006), which set forth his political vision; and “Of Thee I Sing” (2010), a celebration of 13 inspirational Americans that took the form of a letter to his daughters. He has earned an estimated $15.6 million for those books.

A literary agent speculated in comments to the New York Times in September that future books by Mr and Mrs Obama might generate as much as $30 million for the couple. “His is going to be easily the most valuable presidential memoir ever,” agent Raphael Sagalyn told the Times. “And I think Michelle Obama has the opportunity to sell the most valuable first-lady memoir in history.”

The 44th US president will also be receiving an annual pension and benefits likely to be in excess of $1 million.

Mr Obama earned $400,000 in each of his eight years in the White House. After leaving it, he will be paid $205,700 annually for the rest of his life — a sum based on the salary of members of the US president’s cabinet. Mr Obama and his immediate family will also have round-the-clock Secret Service protection, along with allotments for office expenses.

Fees for speeches that Mr Obama makes could bring him additional millions. Former President Bill Clinton is calculated to have made $65 million on the speaking circuit since leaving office 16 years ago.

A share of Mr Obama’s retirement earnings will be used to cover the rent on the nine-bedroom Washington mansion where he, Michelle and their youngest daughter plan to live for at least the next two years. The monthly rent for the 90-year-old home in the US capital city’s posh Kalorama neighbourhood has been reported to be $22,000. The house is owned by Mr Clinton’s former press secretary, Joe Lockhart, who purchased it in 2014 for $5.3 million.

It’s unusual for a president to remain in Washington once his occupancy of the White House has come to an end.

Mr and Mrs Obama are staying because Sasha, 15, has two years of study remaining at a local private high school, and her parents did not want to uproot her prior to graduation. Malia, 18, plans to enrol at Harvard University later this year.

The Kalorama home, situated three kilometres from the White House, can serve as the base for continued political activity on the part of a politician who made a rocket-like ascent to the nation’s highest office. And Mr Obama has signalled an intention to remain engaged within his Democratic Party and to speak out on issues of particular concern.

Although his presidency is generally acknowledged to have been successful in the policy arena, Mr Obama has not established a positive political legacy.

In addition to losing the presidency, Democrats have surrendered control of more than 1,000 elected offices at the federal or state level during Mr Obama’s eight years in power.

The party’s US Senate membership has dropped from 55 to 48, their minority share of US House seats fell from 256 to 194, and the number of Democrats serving as governors of the 50 states plummeted from 28 to 16.

POOR ELECTORAL PERFORMANCE

Partly as a result of this poor electoral performance, Mr Obama’s party currently has few credible prospects for the presidential race in 2020.
Perhaps in an effort to atone for his failure to boost the Democrats back to majority-party status, Mr Obama will be working with a party-sponsored group that aims to co-ordinate campaign strategy and fundraising efforts for Democrats running in congressional and state races later this year and in 2018.

“What I am interested in is just developing a whole new generation of talent,” Mr Obama told Washington-based National Public Radio last year.

But his role as ex-president will involve little in the way of direct political combat with Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, the White House communications chief recently suggested.

“The way he views his role is not that he himself, Barack Obama, is going to be out there giving fiery speeches and leading marches,” Jen Psaki told the online publication Politico. “But he wants to play a role in empowering and lifting up the next generation of leaders.”

A few possible actions by the Trump administration could, however, serve as red lines that, if crossed, might well prompt combative public comments from Mr Obama.

He is said to have told friends and advisers that he would speak out against any Republican move to end his administration’s protection from deportation for non-citizens who were brought to the US illegally as children.

And Mr Obama is already seeking to block Republicans’ repeal of the centrepiece of his legacy: the “Obamacare” law that has provided some 20 million Americans with health insurance.

Mr Obama might also vocally oppose potential efforts by Mr Trump to abrogate the Iran nuclear weapons deal or the Paris climate-change accord.

If he decides he isn’t keeping busy enough in retirement, Mr Obama could take a job as a law professor. He held such a post from 1992 to 2004 at the University of Chicago.

“I love the law, intellectually,” Mr Obama said in a recent interview with The New Yorker magazine. “I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students.”

And contrary to a humorous comment he made in November in a televised chat, Mr Obama probably will not be seeking work as an Uber driver.

But after eight years in the Oval Office, he might come close to carrying out another option in his immediate post-presidency period that he mentioned in the same interview: “to sleep for two weeks.”