The aides would not say how much Mr. Obama will be paid per speech,
but former President Bill Clinton averaged more than $200,000 per speech between 2001 and 2015; former President George W. Bush is reportedly paid $100,000 to $175,000 for each appearance.
That’s not the way he saw his post-presidency.”
Mr. Glassman said that Mr. Bush’s keep-quiet approach toward Mr. Obama was shaped by what he saw as
unfair criticism by former President Jimmy Carter of his father, the elder President George Bush.
After spending weeks in French Polynesia — including time on the yacht of the movie mogul David Geffen along with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks
and Oprah Winfrey — Mr. Obama will return to Chicago on Monday for his first public event as a former president.
Mr. Obama and a small cadre of former White House aides in his Washington office know
that anything he says in public, no matter how veiled, will be interpreted as criticism of Mr. Trump.
“I would try to get him to do things like talk about immigration policy and say the things he said as president,” Mr. Glassman said of Mr. Bush.
Even as he witnesses President Trump’s relentless and chaotic assault on his legacy, Mr. Obama
remains stubbornly committed to the idea that there is only one president at a time.
Aides have rejected the idea that Mr. Obama should actively wage a public feud against Mr. Trump, with whom he has not spoken since the inauguration.