How Much Wealth Every President Had

i'm mr beat we americans we only elect people to public office who represent us you know working class americans who truly represent the will of the people who know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck who aren't out of touch with what we're going through i'm kidding yeah the majority of those in congress are in fact millionaires the media net worth for all members of congress is just over one million dollars now don't forget that they do get an annual salary currently that's a hundred and seventy four thousand dollars a year but i'm talking assets man they tend to have lots of assets you know stuff that has value and could be easily converted to cash if needed how about american presidents well first of all the current annual presidential salary is four hundred thousand dollars with an additional fifty thousand dollars i know a fifty you know measly fifty thousand dollars for an expense account each year but let's give it up to president donald trump like herbert hoover and john f kennedy before him he donates his presidential salary each year to various government agencies like the national park service and the department of veteran affairs however trump is a billionaire the country's first billionaire president as a matter of fact so he can easily afford to donate his salary plus the idea that he is quote working for nothing is incredibly misleading since president trump continues to make money from all the real estate he owns or manages he has actually faced multiple lawsuits for this those suing him argue that by making money through his real estate ventures while in office he has violated the us constitution's emoluments clauses but anyway yeah donald trump is the richest president in american history but looking into this i got curious so here is how rich every president was throughout american history from poorest to richest now that said we are going to look at peak wealth for the sake of this video there were several presidents who had debts when they died so they literally had a negative net worth oh and one more thing the main source for this information is from a report from 24 7 wall street i have linked it in the description of this video harry truman yep by most accounts he was our poorest president he had lots of odd jobs as a young adult spent time in railroad construction and working on his family farm and had a failed hat shop he only was able to enter politics due to his connections he made through his military service him not having much wealth led to congress literally doubling the presidential salary to 100 000 while he was in office in 1949 however he famously continued to struggle financially after he left the presidency this was also why congress created the presidential pension in 1958 and in 1966 truman and his wife bess got the first medicare cards after the government program began calvin coolidge before entering politics for 20 years he had a fairly modest career as a lawyer after he left the presidency he got some money from his memoir and columns and all kinds of magazines but that's basically it woodrow wilson sure he was the only president to have a phd but he never made much money before entering state politics he did make a comfortable living as a professor at princeton and then he did rather well after he worked his way up to president of of princeton chester arthur hey chester congratulations on being the 41st richest president in american history or put another way fourth poorest yeah his first career was as a teacher he later was a principal and lawyer james garfield yep garfield was also a teacher teaching greek and latin at western reserve eclectic institute he also was a minister yep it seemed garfield did not care about making money ulysses grant sure he was a hero of the civil war and a military genius but struggled to earn wealth outside of the military and politics many forget he also fought in the mexican-american war after he left the army in 1854 he failed at both farming and real estate only beginning to earn money when his dad gave him work in leather goods after he left the presidency he had a series of failed investments that left him bankrupt and he literally put together a memoir while he was dying so that debt wouldn't go to his wife and kids andrew johnson throughout his political career he constantly complained about plantation wealth in the south he also definitely grew up poor and with little formal education not learning how to read or write until he was 17 years old however he did make a comfortable living as a tailor before entering into politics abraham lincoln sure he's our most beloved president today but he's also the eighth poorest in history he actually had a similar upbringing to andrew johnson who was his vice president who took over after lincoln was assassinated but yeah lincoln was also poor growing up and made money in his 20s doing manual labor like literally splitting wood all day after that he did all kinds of work including being a postmaster and owning a general store only after he was elected to the illinois state legislature did he decide to become a lawyer james buchanan well how about that the president before lincoln who is often considered the worst the united states has ever had buchanan actually came from a fairly wealthy family however he never made much money himself since he basically spent his entire career in public service oh and he never married into wealth since he you know never married anyone william mckinley mckinley also didn't gain much wealth over his life since he spent his entire career in public service it also didn't help that he never got any big inheritance oh and while he was governor of ohio he went bankrupt during the panic of 1893. warren harding guess what harding was also a teacher but he also worked in insurance he started to make some money when he helped turn around a once failing newspaper but harding owed much of his wealth to his wife mabel who was the daughter of a wealthy banker franklin pierce pierce had a modest upbringing on a frontier farm but his wife jane had a lot of wealth in her family pierce had his own law practice before entering politics he also served in the military rutherford hayes hayes main career was lawyer like so many other future politicians he was a darn good lawyer though and won some big cases that helped him earn a decent living he served in the civil war and got into politics after that william taft he started out as a lawyer who had connections right off the bat then later became solicitor general a federal judge and famously was the only president to also serve later on as a supreme court justice and being in the judicial branch generally pays better than the legislative branch and executive branch millard fillmore he was born into poverty and never got any inheritance despite little formal schooling he worked his butt off and ended up becoming a big time lawyer in the buffalo new york area before that he was also a teacher for a while education was so important to him that later he helped start a university later called the university at buffalo he was its first chancellor william henry harrison he spent much of his career in the military now harrison had some wealth since his wife anna had wealth her dad was a big time judge and landowner also after his mom died he inherited 3 000 acres of land which he get this turned around and sold to his brother that all said harrison ended up losing nearly all his wealth by the time he became president and remember he was only in office for 31 days after he died he left anna hardly anything and congress ended up making a special pension for her benjamin harrison well how about that williams grandson still ended up having a bit more wealth than him unlike his grandpa benjamin was mostly a self-made man he was one of the highest paid lawyers in the country zachary taylor famous for his distinguished military career before he became president taylor got his wealth in several other ways first of all he inherited lots of land in multiple states in addition he made lots of money in land speculation as a landlord and made big investments in bank and utility stocks because of all that he owned a huge plantation which had around 80 slaves gerald ford ford had a middle class upbringing and spent most of his life in public service going right into politics after serving in world war ii he did make the most of his wealth after he was president getting millions of dollars from book advances and from serving on the boards of big time corporations jimmy carter carter famously was a peanut farmer before entering politics after he took over his father's peanut farm they didn't make much money at all however he ended up turning the farm around so that he made a comfortable living still by the time he lost his re-election bid for president in 1980 he was in debt since his farm had failed after he put it into a blind trust while he was in office however since then he and his wife rosalind have made lots of money publishing lots of books dwight eisenhower another career military man and famously a world war ii hero eisenhower also had a modest upbringing and inherited no wealth however he did get some added family wealth after marrying his wife mamie of course eisenhower was always smart with his investments which is why he and mamie retired comfortably after he left the presidency john f kennedy opposite of eisenhower yes kennedy was born into lots of wealth and always had lots of connections kennedy's dad was one of the richest men in the country as a matter of fact also by the time kennedy married jackie she had lots of oil money in her family no not oily money that'd be gross money from the oil industry so while jfk went straight from the military to politics he could easily afford to almost all of his wealth came from a trust shared with other family members james polk another president literally born in a log cabin but don't be fooled his dad was a wealthy plantation owner and land speculator polk's wife sarah also had a wealthy family so yeah even though polk was only briefly a lawyer before entering politics he had lots of assets including a 920 acre plantation and 25 slaves ronald reagan well many forget this but reagan was a movie and tv star before entering politics before that he was on radio he was also paid well as a ge spokesperson later he also made lots of money from books now this one surprised me richard nixon he grew up in relative poverty didn't inherit much and worked as a public servant most of his life after resigning from the presidency he had financial struggles however later on he made money from a series of interviews with david frost and from a bunch of books eventually he was able to build up his wealth due to a bunch of smart real estate investments john adams sure adam's got an inheritance but his wife abigail also had a lot of family wealth because of this they were set also adams had a very successful law practice john quincy adams john's son did even better than his dad of course he got most of his dad's land but additionally his wife the terrific louisa was the daughter of a wealthy merchant so yep he was a career public servant because he just watched those assets become more and more valuable george h.w bush bush senior was also born into wealth and he just built upon it as an adult with all the connections he had he made lots of money running an offshore oil drilling company and also had lots of real estate investments grover cleveland he had a relatively modest upbringing and built up his wealth as an adult his wife francis was the daughter of a wealthy lawyer but this is a strange one though from what i could gather cleveland got wealthy by just being ridiculously smart with where he put his money he married late only after he was president and invested heavily in real estate martin van buren van buren also had a relatively modest upbringing and built up his wealth through his law practice and he also invested in real estate are you starting to notice a pattern here james monroe he was born into wealth and his wife elizabeth was two at one point they had 250 slaves on a 3 500 acre plantation yet he still somehow ended up in debt having to sell the plantation george w bush like john quincy adams bush jr has ended up building up even more wealth than his dad george h.w bush and it's all because of his painting career just kidding although he has made money from those paintings before his political career george w bush also made millions in the oil industry and owned a freaking professional baseball team for crying out loud the texas rangers after leaving the presidency he has also made tens of millions thanks to speaking fees and book deals barack obama before obama entered politics he had various careers including being a lawyer community organizer and even teacher most of his wealth has come since he left the presidency three and a half years ago he gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for speeches alone he also has sold millions of books and launched a production company with his wife michelle john tyler the 10th president is the 11th richest in american history and it's all about that old money he inherited a 1 000 acre tobacco plantation and his first wife leticia also had a ridiculously wealthy family however he was another one who lost most of his wealth by the end of his life franklin d roosevelt he inherited a bunch and got a bunch through his marriage to the fantastic eleanor he was able to maintain and build up his wealth due to real estate and other investments and spent most of his adult life in politics and briefly being a lawyer bill clinton clinton is another one who was not wealthy before he was president he almost immediately went into politics after a short stint as a professor remember he started young becoming the attorney general of arkansas when he was only 30 years old similar to obama he and his wife hillary have made most of their wealth since he left the presidency through huge book deals paid speeches and business consulting herbert hoover sure hoover was wealthy but he's another self-made man he was born foreign but he eventually made lots of money in the mining industry first as an engineer and later as an executive eventually expanding his operations around the world he also sold many books lyndon b johnson lbj was another career politician although he was a teacher for a few months while in college so why was he so wealthy by the time he died his wife lady bird who yes inherited wealth but was also very business savvy thanks to her lbj had lots of profitable investments james madison born in the great wealth much of the land he owned was passed down to him eventually he was the largest landowner in orange county virginia with around 5 000 acres he also had more than 100 slaves toward the end of his life however he lost quite a bit of money andrew jackson historians often call him our first quote common man president but he was the fifth wealthiest president of all time perhaps jackson never forgot about his upbringing he was poor growing up he started out as a saddle maker and teacher but only started to make a decent living as a lawyer his wife rachel had some wealth in her family and jackson's law practice ended up doing very well plus he got paid decently while in the military more importantly he got 1050 acres of amazing land in tennessee throughout his life he owned as many as 300 slaves theodore roosevelt teddy got a trust fund a big one his family was extremely wealthy and had lots of connections he spent the majority of his adult life in politics so didn't earn an extraordinary amount he also lost a lot of money on a ranching investment in the dakotas however overall his wealth was sustained through valuable real estate and writing books thomas jefferson jefferson inherited 3 000 acres of valuable land and around 175 slaves over his life jefferson would own more slaves than any other president with more than 600 while most of his wealth came from his famous 5 000 acre plantation monticello he also made serious money in all the different political positions he was in similar to his friend james madison he also lost quite a bit of money toward the end of his life george washington by now this story is all too familiar property lots of property sadly human property my favorite president also unfortunately had over 300 slaves his plantation mount vernon was made up of five separate farms on more than 8 000 acres of some of the richest farmland in virginia his wealth also had help from his wife martha who inherited lots of property after her first husband died even as president he made a higher salary than all other presidents when adjusted for inflation i mean he was a pretty good president and as i said at the beginning of the video the richest president in american history is donald trump as most of you already know he inherited lots of real estate wealth and he has grown his real estate empire over the years mostly due to the marketing of his image while it's assumed he is our first billionaire president no one really knows his actual net worth since the trump organization is privately held forbes magazine estimates it to be around 2.1 billion dollars so there you have it in general the poorest presidents served in the late 1800s to early 1900s with the exception of the roosevelts of course and their richest presidents served in the earliest years of the republic and the most recent years of the republic which i just find fascinating also remember there's a clear pattern here the wealthiest presidents and the wealthiest people for that matter they build up those assets for realness but what do you think does wealth even matter when we talk about presidents now that i've made an entire video about it is it inevitable that most people who end up in public office also happen to be wealthy or put more bluntly is the only way to get into congress or to become president to first have a lot of wealth let me know in the comments below thanks for watching

Channel: Mr. Beat

Views: 2,665,553

Keywords: How Rich Every President Was, how wealthy every president was, who was the richest president in history, the poorest u.s. presidents, net worth of every president, most in congress are rich, do you have to be rich to run for president, richest u.s. presidents, how much wealth did every president have, how much is the us president paid, mrbeast president ranking, How much wealth every president had, how wealthy were the founding fathers, richest american presidents, Mr. Beat

Id: G-fYO5e7FN8

Length: 20min 35sec (1235 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/enderdragonpig]

It’s crazy that Washington was the richest president before Trump even though he was elected so long ago.

[u/sir-idiotkritz]

Beat beat beat beat yew