White House

Barack Obama did not want to hit the campaign trail -- it's not really something former Presidents do -- but he felt it was necessary because Donald Trump's tenure "was not normal."

Forty Four appeared on CBS's "Sunday Morning" with Gayle King. He made it clear, he didn't really want to stump for the Dems, but he said, "I think we were in a circumstance in this election in which certain norms, certain institutional values that are so extraordinarily important, had been breached – that it was important for me, as somebody who had served in that office, to simply let people know, 'This is not normal.'"

Obama framed the current American dilemma this way ... "It's very hard for our democracy to function if we are operating on just completely different sets of facts."

He's sure got a point ... the reality is that most Americans now select media that parrots their own views -- especially if it's skewed -- and they distrust media that takes the opposing view. So, both sides get lopsided news.

The former Prez also obliquely addressed criticism, that he didn't do enough for Black America, saying, "I think a lotta people expected, 'Well, we got this young, progressive president. And now suddenly we're gonna eliminate inequality and, you know, we're immediately gonna have universal health care. And we're gonna have climate change legislation, and immigration reform, and criminal justice reform,' and all the things that I wanted to get done. But what I understood very early on is, the federal government, headed by the president, is an ocean liner; it is not a speedboat. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, the work you've done may be appreciated as having been good and helpful. But at the time, it can feel like, 'Wow, this isn't happening fast enough!'"

Obama, who was promoting his new memoir, "A Promised Land," shrugged off King's question of whether he'll help Biden, saying, "He doesn't need my advice. And I will help him in any ways that I can. But now, you know, I'm not planning to suddenly work on The White House staff or something."

Donald Trump's got a new way to pay off his massive debt after leaving the Oval Office ... there are huge sums to be made for speaking engagements.

The 45th President of the United States would easily command upwards of $1 million to speak in front of crowds in America and overseas ... according to folks who help celebs get such deals. Trump could make even more abroad, where his booking fee could reach as high as $2 million.

Lots of famous folks get paid huge sums to speak, and Trump will soon be in high demand ... as will Melania and Ivanka, once the whole lot is out of the White House.

Heavy hitters in the biz tell us Melania will fetch between $75k and $125k to speak in the U.S. and between $125k and $175k abroad. Those estimates assume she stays married to DT, and we're told they would increase if she ever divorces him or writes a tell-all book. How's that for added incentive?!?

Ivanka, we're told, will command the most among Trump's kids ... in part because she was already a published author with her own product lines before entering the White House. Ivanka should rake in between $75k to $100k to speak in the States, compared to $100k to $125k internationally.

Sorry, Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany ... we're told they're only gonna rake in about $75k to speak in the U.S. and there's unlikely to be an international market for them. It's peanuts compared to papa.

Trump will be an easy sell in America, where over 72 million people just voted for him ... and industry insiders expect him to mostly appear at Republican or right-wing events. Internationally, we're told Trump will likely have his first few speaking engagements in places where he's got lots of friends, like Israel and Russia.

The speaking engagements for Trump and his family will likely be very thick on NDA's, we're told, and the agreements would allow Trump to prevent speeches from being recorded.

The money's there for speaking engagements, but we're told PR firms and talent agencies aren't lining up to sign the Trumps as clients ... they fear it would piss off existing clients and spark a mass exodus.

Trump loves the bottom line, and he's also gonna like this ... we're told he will get first-class accommodations and golf trips wherever he gets paid to speak.

Donald Trump ventured outside The White House Saturday AM to greet his supporters who believe he's the victim of election theft, but after he left, violence erupted.

Protesters and counter-protesters got into it as the crowd grew in size throughout the morning.

Trump breezed past the demonstrators in downtown Washington D.C. in his motorcade, as the crowd began to grow. The event is billed the "Million MAGA March" which includes 'Women for Trump' and 'Stop the Steal.' Many of them are marching to protest the election results, claiming without evidence there was massive fraud with mail-in ballots.

There are counterdemonstrations with anti-fascist and anti-racism groups ... always a recipe for confrontations and violence.

The Trump demonstration was promoted by the Proud Boys, Infowars and other right-wing orgs.

Trump tweeted Thursday, "Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there, especially the organic Rallies that are springing up all over the Country, including a big one on Saturday in D.C. I may even try to stop by and say hello. This Election was Rigged, from Dominion all the way up & down!"

Trump may be off to his golf course. As we reported, once he leaves The White House he's poised to make a million dollars plus a pop for speeches. We're told he's also eyeing the possibility of forming his own broadcast network which he would use for the next 4 years and then run again in 2024.

President-elect Joe Biden and First Lady-in-Waiting Jill Biden got a little exercise in Saturday before the transition team assembled in Delaware.

Joe and Jill breezed past reporters on their bikes as they said hello, a warm greeting that has not been forthcoming over the last 4 years.

A phalanx of Secret Service agents followed closely behind, which is an interesting sign, right? Although Donald Trump will not concede the election, the Secret Service is certainly acknowledging Biden's the next Prez.

Trump came as close as he's come Friday to acknowledging he may have lost the election, but it's virtually unthinkable he'll concede outright.

TMZ broke the story ... Trump stands to make a fortune -- like other past Presidents -- making speeches for at least a million dollars a pop. Sources also say Trump may be eyeing his own broadcast network which he can use as a megaphone for the next 4 years and then run again in 2024.

Barack Obama is reminding the nation he congratulated Donald Trump as soon as he won the election ... a courtesy the President's refusing to extend to Joe Biden.

The former president ripped Trump for failing to acknowledge Biden as president-elect with so much as a congratulatory phone call in an interview with "CBS This Morning," telling Gayle King Trump is damaging our democracy with the way he's eschewing what's traditionally been a peaceful -- and cordial -- transfer of power.

Obama recalled election night 2016, saying he stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to phone Trump and congratulate the president-elect. Obama says he was doing what presidents do, just as George W. Bush graciously did during Obama's historic 2008 victory.

Trump's refusal to concede and call up president-elect Biden is clearly not sitting well with Obama.

As you know ... Obama previously chided Trump and the GOP for continuing to make baseless claims of election fraud in an interview with "60 Minutes," telling Scott Pelley it undermines the country.

Obama points out Biden and 2016 Trump will end up with the same number of Electoral College votes, 306, but says half the country likely won't take that into account if they keep consuming conservative media ... which Obama says presents voter fraud allegations as fact.

President Trump has surfaced with great news -- the whole country will be getting the COVID-19 vaccine next spring, unless you live in NY ... where all you're getting is screwed by the Trump v. Cuomo war.

The President made his first public remarks since the election, Friday at the White House ... and proudly announced Operation Warp Speed is ready to distribute Pfizer's vaccine as soon as it gets FDA approval. He's projecting delivery will begin in April.

Great news, right? Well, POTUS also served up a side dish of petty with the vaccine. He said NY state will NOT be getting the vaccine because Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he doesn't want it.

Trump was referring to comments the Gov. has made about not trusting a vaccine if the Trump administration rushes its approval. Well, The Prez is taking him at his word, and went on to rip Cuomo for his COVID-19 response in the Empire State.

The good news for NYers is there's still time for both men to squash the beef, and Trump did say everything could change if Cuomo calls and asks for the vaccine. Translation: Kiss the ring, then you'll get the meds.

However, the Governor's Office tells TMZ, "Trump has failed with his pandemic response, lied to the Americans about how bad it was when he knew otherwise & was fired by voters for his incompetence. Governor Cuomo is fighting to ensure the communities hit hardest by COVID get the vaccine."

Doesn't sound like an attempt to make peace.

The wild card, of course, is President-elect Joe Biden, who it appears WILL be in the Oval Office come April -- so, maybe Cuomo doesn't see a need to bow to Trump.

While Trump did not take any questions from reporters, he did make one reference to the election, saying, "This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Who knows which administration it will be ... I guess time will tell."

It's the closest he's come to acknowledging defeat, but still ... NOT a concession speech.

Claudia Jordan thinks Donald Trump was always cool to her because he wanted to get in her pants, and now she's comparing him to folks like Thomas Jefferson. That's NOT a Presidential reference, either.

The "Celebrity Apprentice" alum opened up about her reality show days with Trump while on the latest edition of the Political Junkeez podcast. It's no secret she hates DT now, but back then she says they got along fine enough -- but added that was only "because he wanted to f**k."

Now, she didn't accuse him of trying anything untoward -- sounds like it was more of a vibe she got from Trump -- but did say no one should take his admiration for her as a sign he's not racist.

In fact, she compared him to slave owners who had sex with their slaves.

Claudia competed on seasons 2 and 6 of "Celebrity Apprentice," but also knew Trump from her days in the Miss USA competition.

As soon as President Trump is no longer the U.S. President, he needs to answer for his alleged criminal activity ... according to Congressman Eric Swalwell, who has a proposal on how to make that happen.

The Democratic Representative from California says 45's day of reckoning must come -- along with his enablers -- for what he says they've done to the country, which is why he wants to create a 'Presidential Crimes Commission.'

Swalwell says ideally, this group would be made up of independent prosecutors outside Congress who would be responsible for determining if the President or senior officials broke the law during their term, and if so ... they'd go after them.

The Congressman says the goal is to make sure nobody, not even POTUS, is above the law and gets away with any offenses. As for what crimes he'd want the PCC to take a look at with Trump ... there's a laundry list, but obstructing justice and sabotaging the mail are top of mind for Swalwell.

Currently, Swalwell believes the Prez is committing another transgression by not cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden during the transition period ... something Trump's press secretary won't even talk about.

Barack Obama is ripping Donald Trump and Republicans for continuing to make baseless claims of a fraudulent election ... he says it's a very slippery slope.

The former president broke his silence on Trump's unfounded claims of voter fraud in an interview with "60 Minutes," telling Scott Pelley he's troubled by the large number of Republicans going along with Trump's claims and humoring him.

Obama says Republicans are not only trying to delegitimize president-elect Joe Biden and his incoming administration, but also democracy in general.

What's more, Obama says what Trump and the GOP are doing is putting America on "a dangerous path."

Barack Obama's time in The White House was full of challenges ... not the least of which he says was his relationship with the First Lady.

The former Prez opens up about his 8 years in office in an upcoming memoir called "A Promised Land" ... and one of his most interesting anecdotes is about how the Presidency took a toll on Michelle.

Obama says he could sense an "undercurrent of tension in her, subtle but constant," despite her own achievements and growing popularity ... and their roles in America's First Family amplified all of the stress involved.

Barack says ... "It was as if, confined as we were within the walls of the White House, all her previous sources of frustration became more concentrated, more vivid, whether it was my round the clock absorption with work, or the way politics exposed our family to scrutiny and attacks, or the tendency of even friends and family members to treat her role as secondary in importance."

He adds that he became wistful many nights while he was lying next to Michelle thinking about the time before he was Prez "when everything between us felt lighter, when her smile was more constant and our love less encumbered, and my heart would suddenly tighten at the thought that those days might not return."

Well here's a new one -- Kayleigh McEnany punted a question about President-elect Joe Biden getting access to intelligent briefings, saying it's a question for The White House ... even though that's literally HER job!!!

The WH Press Secretary's absurd moment went down Thursday morning on "Fox & Friends," when they asked her if President Trump's considering looping Biden in during the transfer of Presidential power.

McEnany says she hasn't spoken to the Prez about that topic, but ... "that would be a question more for The White House."

Puzzled? Yeah, us too. So, we asked a different White House rep what gives, and got this -- "Kayleigh appeared in her personal capacity as a private citizen. She advises the campaign on a voluntary basis."

Oooookay! Now, Kayleigh's paying gig is still Press Secretary -- for the White House -- so, she essentially said ... that would be a question for ME, but at some other time. Welcome to the Twilight Zone. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Talk about awkward situations ... Melania Trump's preparing to spread Christmas cheer at the White House while a ticked off President Trump appears to be in full Grinch mode. Good luck!

A rep for the First Lady tells TMZ ... Melania is, indeed, planning on decorating 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. again this year for Christmas, as is tradition. Might seem like a no-brainer -- First Ladies have been doing it for decades -- but the difference now is ... we know it's not one of MT's favorite things.

You'll recall, Melania was recorded in 2018 -- by her then-adviser, Stephanie Wolkoff -- trashing the White House decorating tradition. She said, "Who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?"

At the time, the First Lady was frustrated because the media was focusing on child separations at the border, and she apparently felt like no one would give a Fievel's ass about the decorations.

Well, cut to 2020 and there's a new hot button distraction -- her husband seems convinced they're staying put for another 4 years, despite losing the election to Joe Biden.

That begs the question ... does Melania think this will be her final Christmas bow in the White House? It'll be interesting to see her 2020 theme, as it could give some insight into how she's dealing with all this drama.

In light of all that's happened this year, maybe pass on repeating last year's white Christmas. Just a thought.

Joe Biden's team is already talking criminal justice reform with civil rights attorney Ben Crump ... who says he's expecting big things in the first 100 days of Biden's administration.

We got Ben Wednesday at Reagan Airport in D.C., where he told us he's been in touch with President-elect Biden's transition team and VP-elect Kamala Harris. He says some of the conversations have been about preventing tragedies -- that became hashtags in 2020 -- like the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

The way Crump sees it ... America can and must do better, and it's clear he's counting on Biden's administration to make it happen. He also said it would be really hard to do worse than the current administration.

Interestingly, it sounds like he has some ideas for improving the Dept. of Justice's response to cases where racial bias might be at play.

A Pennsylvania politician is fighting off accusations that he's been posing as a gay Black man online to drum up support for Donald Trump ... and boy, this story gets weird.

Dean Browning -- a former Republican commissioner in Lehigh County -- tweeted a bizarre message earlier this week that had folks thinking he screwed up and posted something he meant to throw on to an alternative account he allegedly keeps ... maybe for good reason.

The tweet read, "I'm a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me, my life only changed a little bit and it was for the worse. Everything is so much better under Trump though. I feel respected - which I never do when Democrats are involved."

The reason this raised eyebrows ... Dean's white, so what gives? At first, many believed Dean was tweeting something he meant to put on what's been described as an alleged "sock puppet" account -- AKA, Dan Purdy, a Twitter account that often replies to Dean, and which identifies as a gay Black man. To some, Purdy's tweets come off as a spam account.

After realizing his tweet had gone viral -- and after taking it down -- Browning came out and denied he was posing as a gay Black man, insisting that the message he tweeted had, in fact, been sent to him from one Dan Purdy ... whom Browning claims is a real person.

Soon after that, a Black man claiming to be the real Dan Purdy stood up ... and recorded a video of himself copping to sending Dean the message and backing up the sentiment of the tweet. That video has since been deleted, but many captured it and circulated it around.

Here's the kicker ... a lot of people are saying this guy who says he's Dan Purdy looks an awful lot like singer Patti LaBelle's nephew, William Holt ... who also goes by Byl Holt. Aside from the striking resemblance, Internet sleuths also noticed Dan and Will appear to use the same avatar for different profiles on social media. So ... a few things line up.

It hasn't been confirmed this is Patti's nephew, but if it is ... what a strange twist to an already confusing situation. Just goes to show (we think) -- don't judge a tweet by its tweeter.

More than 76 million Americans are looking forward to Joe Biden moving into The White House in January ... including The White House residence staff, which, as sources tell us, is now "walking on eggshells."

Sources with connections to the WH residence tell TMZ ... many of the day-to-day workers -- including the cleaning and maintenance crews and the kitchen staff -- can't wait to see him and his administration go.

We're told these staff members have had enough of the constant commotion and media attention Trump brings to the WH because it's created a more negative and stressful environment ... trickling from the top down.

The biggest concern right now ... incurring the wrath of the President. Our sources say the staff knows, one false move and they're toast. Ya gotta keep in mind residences -- the bedrooms and staff areas -- are in pretty close quarters, all connected by one narrow hallway. It's virtually impossible for staff to avoid the First Family and vice versa ... and with the Prez so angry post-election, we're told the tension among staffers is palpable.

Many of the workers have been there for decades, so they already have a history with Biden during his time as Barack Obama's Veep.

By contrast, we're told many of those in Trump's administration present a much stiffer, cold demeanor ... which has rubbed White House regulars the wrong way. As for the President himself ... our sources say he's not rude, but also not as charming as the Presidents preceding him.

And, there's this -- along with Biden comes Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. We're told the female White House staffers feel this is a game-changer ... and her presence and representation has built a giddy sense of anticipation.

Obviously, the next couple of months could be a rocky transition period, so we're told workers are focusing on performing their duties as usual, being professional, and keeping their opinions to themselves.