President Obama this week offered more details about his post-presidency life, which seems increasingly likely to include a mix of shining a spotlight on his favorite issues, international travel and some real time off after eight years in the White House.
On his current trip to Asia that included a visit to Hawaii, he pledged to stay involved in the fight against climate change and with an organization of up-and-coming southeastern Asian leaders.
“I’m hoping to continue to work with young people through my presidential center,” Obama said, referring to the presidential library being built on Chicago’s South Side. “And so one of the components that I’ve discussed with my team is how I can continue to interact with the [Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative] alumni, and we can share ideas and I can continue to meet with you and we can work on projects together.”
But Obama, whose trip to Laos was the first by an American president, also added a tourist trip to that country to his bucket list.
“And I promise you, I will come back when I’m no longer president,” he vowed. “And I can sit and relax and have some food and I won’t be so busy.”
Obama last year started what is now a habit of promising to return to every region he visits in the last few months of his tenure.
“I’m looking forward to life after being president,” Obama said during a summer 2015 trip to Africa. “I won’t have such a big security detail all the time. It means I can go take a walk. I can spend time with my family. I can find other ways to serve. I can visit Africa more often.”
The Obamas have committed to making Washington, D.C., their home base until their youngest daughter, Sasha, completes high school at the elite Sidwell Friends in 2019, which should also give Obama time to write.
Under the contract he signed with Crown Publishers in 2004, he owes the company another book.
Obama’s recent mentions of wanting to pursue venture capitalism and partially own an NBA team have led to speculation that he’ll immediately pen his memoirs to fund his ambitions, but Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Joseph Ellis says don’t reserve your advance copy yet.
“The biggest mistake President Clinton made was writing his memoirs right away,” Ellis said. Obama will likely wait a few years because “he doesn’t need the money,” Ellis told the Washington Examiner, referring to the royalties he’s accumulated from the three books he’s already written.
“I don’t think he’ll do the big money lecture circuit either,” Ellis predicted.
The Obamas’ net worth is estimated at $12.2 million.
Obama has also committed to keeping up with My Brother’s Keeper, his initiative to help young minority males, and working on racial and criminal justice issues.
One Obama enterprise in which his future role is unclear is the remnants of his campaigns, Organizing For Action. Neither White House nor OFA officials will discuss what’s next for the grassroots group nor what part its original leader will play in it.
OFA is surveying its membership about what issues they want to tackle after Obama leaves office. It launched a “what’s next” tour and over the summer offered dinner with Obama as the grand prize in a contest centered on gathering input about the group’s direction.
Obama has also discuss what Michelle Obama’s plans are come January.
“My wife, I think, will continue to work on nutrition issues, but you know, she’s going to probably be more involved internationally as well as domestically more than she has been, now that our girls are getting older,” Obama said in Laos this week, referring to Michelle Obama’s reluctance to travel much while Sasha and older sister Malia were young.
“I think you’ll see Michelle work on these issues more internationally than she has,” he said about his Let Girls Learn initiative and her Let’s Move! Health campaign.
But Obama has also stressed the need to relax.
“The first thing I’m probably going to do is catch up on my sleep,” Obama said in 2015. “So I’m going do that for a couple of months.”
