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Michelle Obama complains living in White House was expensive: 'You're paying for every bit of food you eat'

Michelle Obama complains living in White House was expensive: 'You're paying for every bit of food you eat'

Time of India03-05-2025

Michelle Obama said living in White House was costly and they had to pay for their food.
Former first lady
Michelle Obama
got heavily trolled as a clip from her podcast, where she was seen complaining about the cost of living in the White House, went viral. In 'The Diary of a CEO' podcast, Michelle said though you don't have to pay for living in the White House, every bit of the food is on you -- prompting backlash from social media users on how out-of-touch she could be.
'How do you raise kids in the White House? It's dangerous,' Michelle Obama said. 'As the first black potential president, we knew there would be death threats … how would we afford it? Because it's expensive to live in the White House, as many people don't know.'
'I mean, much is not covered,' she continued. 'You're paying for every food, every bit of food that you eat, you know, you're not paying for housing and the staff in it … but everything, even travel, if you're not traveling with the president, if you're kids are coming on a Bright Star, which is the first lady's plane, we had to pay for their travel to be on the plane.'
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'It is an expensive proposition, and you're running for two years and not earning an income, so all of that was in my mind, um, how would we manage this."
People called out the entitlement and raised questions over how the net worth of the Obamas ballooned if they were struggling so much. "Barack earned $400K a year as president for eight years. The Obamas entered the White House with a net worth of $1.3 million. The Obamas are now worth around $70 million," one wrote.
Right-wing commentator Megyn Kelly laughed off Michelle Obama's "struggle" and wondered how Donald Trump has been gracious to host so many people in the White House, and everyone finds it so easygoing staying at the Lincoln's bedroom and Trump asking them to have ice cream, contrary to how difficult Michelle Obama makes it look like.

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