Did the federal government pay Barack and Michelle Obama $30 million over the course of the Biden administration, from 2021 to 2025? No, that's not true: That claim originated in an April 2025 post by a Facebook account that labels its content as satirical in nature. We found no corroboration whatsoever for the claim.
The story appeared in the form of a meme posted to Facebook on April 16, 2025 (archived here). It consisted of a photograph of Michelle and Barack Obama, along with the following text:
The Obamas Billed the Federal Government More Than $30 Million During Sleepy Joe's Term
DOGE would like to know where that money is and what it was for.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
That claim did not stem from news reports, or even unconfirmed social media posts. It originated in an April 10 post on Facebook by America's Last Line of Defense, a page which labels its content as satirical:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
On its Facebook page, America's Last Line of Defense states:
The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash.
Nothing on this page is real.
In order to ensure that the meme had not accidentally contained any accuracy, Lead Stories searched both Google News and Google for the phrase "obama '30 million'". Neither search yielded any relevant results.
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For previous Lead Stories debunks related to America's Last Line of Defense, click here.
