If not, how much would you counteroffer?
(If you aren't an American, assume for this hypothetical that you were suddenly granted citizenship and all other requirements are waived.)
That's a seriously low amount of money for this. Most Presidents will make much more than this out of office in just speaking fees and the normal grifting and graft that happens around them. You'd be endangering your ability to make so much more money in the future if that was your goal.
They know it's a low amount and are trying to see if their potential new puppet is dumb enough to accept it.
if i'm president, didn't i almost certainly take such a deal already?
Maybe you got a cabinet position for.. um idk... Secretary of Agriculture because the president knew you and decided to appoint you for some reason? And then he/she and the VP both got involved in a huge scandal or something and everyone else in the line of succession were fired by the president for snitching on him/her regarding the scandal, then you are now the next in line?
(Don't think too hard, it's a hypothetical 😉)
If I'm the president of the United States, I won't have any need for bribes because former presidents can make a ton of money by selling books, giving lectures, and things like that. A million dollars is not that difficult for a former president to make completely legally, so it will not be life-changing at all. And any amount of money that is significantly larger won't matter anyway, because once you pass the 5-10 million dollars mark, your quality of life won't change much anyway. This is why I would easily turn down even a billion dollar bribe without hesitation.
Even if I were the type of person who doesn't care for ethics and morals, accepting a bribe would be unnecessary and risky.
And for the people saying that this money can do a lot of good, the president of the US has a lot more resources to manipulate to make this bribe a drop in the bucket.
You assume they’re bribed but I’ll bet it’s both death threats AND bribes.
Lmao fuck no. If I'm president I'm already making wayyy more money than I ever aimed for, legally. After I retire I can just make money selling book or w/e.
I can barely even stand taking orders at my normal, chill job. Imagine how fuckung aweful it would be if it wasn't just "fix this bug while making this feature and write a presentation about it" but "enact bad public policy while managing the unknown political landscape in our favor and attending to all other expected duties". Once again I say "fuck no."
No I would not take that. The rich life of being a 4-to-8-millionaire would not be worth the self disgust and guilt I’d feel over knowing I’d sold out my country.
People don't become president because they want to get rich; most of them are already rich, and could make more money if they were working in the private sector. (Although being an elected national politician has great benefits, like pensions, security details, health benefits that are far better than almost anything you'd get privately, etc.) In most cases, they want power. So you're going to need to offer some kind of equivalency.
At a certain point, money becomes raw power, but it's not when it's just a million here or there, not anymore. After all. the president may not have huge amounts of money, but he has the ability to suggest that the DoJ to start investigating you.
President makes 400,000 a year for a min of 4 years (1,600,000) and a max of 8 years (3,200,000) so I'd probably ask for 5,000,000 a year for them to call the shots and an extra 1,000,000 for anything I don't think will get me reelected.
4 years of 5mil nets me 20mil and 8 nets me 40mil. I stash that away in a moderate dividend spread and I'll be just fine for the overwhelming majority of my life.
I dunno why you're implying this is something outlandish when this already happens. They just call it "campaign donations" if they're in office and "speaking fees" when they're out of it.
If i became president then the world is already a lost cause and money is worthless.
I take it. Sign it.
Then tell the American people.
Fuck rich people
"Only one million? Man, this economy is really bad, getting someone should do something about it."