How the Clintons Got $200+ Million

Donald Trump’s “Corruption” ad starts out with a sinister question. “The Clintons. From dead broke to worth hundreds of millions. So how did Hillary end up filthy rich?”

Turns out if you’ve been President of the United States or you’ve been First Lady and Secretary of State people will give you a shitload of money to hear about it.

Bill Clinton got a $15 million advance for his autobiography My Life (2004); as of April 2008 he’d earned about $23 million in royalties. He got about a $5 million advance for Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (2007); he earned $6.3 million in royalties for and donated $1 million to charity. (I couldn’t find advance or royalty figures for his 2011 book Back to Work.) So he’s earned at least $48.3 million from books.

Hillary Clinton got an $8 million advance for her autobiography Living History (2000); it sold more than a million copies in the first month and by 2007 she’d earned over $10 million in royalties. She got an estimated $14 million advance for her memoir Hard Choices (2014); by mid-2015 she’d earned more than $5 million. (She didn’t take an advance for It Takes a Village and donated most of the royalties to charity.) So she’s earned about $37 million from books.

In addition to at least $85.3 from book sales, the Clintons “made a combined $153 million in paid speeches between 2001 and the time that Hillary launched her 2016 campaign.” Bada-bing! $238.3 million.