Obama’s final $39,000 haul of gifts revealed in official disclosure forms

IN HIS last year as president, Obama accepted a bumper haul of personal gifts — ranging from luxurious to bizarre.

Obama took home a swag of gifts during his final year in office. Picture: Nicholas Kamm

FORMER US president Barack Obama accepted personal gifts worth $39,000 ($US30,000) during his final year in office, newly released disclosure forms reveal.

Mr Obama took in 11 gifts, including a five-volume set of his family genealogy from the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — at a value of $10,890 ($US8300), the most expensive present of the bunch, the forms reveal.

The second most expensive gift was a “large wooden map case with vintage maps inside” from the National Geographic, worth $9185 ($US7000), the New York Post reports.

Rounding out the top three was a framed photograph of boxer Muhammad Ali worth $6889 ($US5250), given to him by comedian Whoopi Goldberg.

His haul also included:

• A “replica Vince Lombardi trophy” [the trophy awarded each year to the NFL team that wins the Super Bowl] worth $3280 ($US2500)

• A “signed and framed photograph of President John F. Kennedy” worth $1837 ($US1400)

• A “signed baseball bat” from former Major League slugger Hank Aaron worth $1181 ($US900)

• A “framed American flag carried during Operation Neptune Spear” worth $3306 ($US2520)

• A “framed ballot from the election of 1964 in favour of President Abraham Lincoln” worth $610 ($US465)

• A “Navy letterman-style jack” worth $787 ($US600)

• A “print of Norman Rockwell’s ‘The Problem We All Life With’ signed by Ruby Bridges Hall worth $1082 ($US825)

• “Three Native American pots in Pueblo style” worth $924 ($US704)

Among Obama’s haul of gifts was a replica of the Vince Lombardi trophy. Pictured is the real deal, wielded by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Picture: Billie Weiss

The president is prohibited from taking gifts from “foreign governments and foreign officials without consent of Congress,” according to Congressional Research Services.

However, “the president is generally free to accept unsolicited personal gifts from the American public.”

Disclosure forms going back to 2010 reveal Mr Obama did not receive personal gifts in prior years as president, the International Business Times reported.

As a matter of protocol, gifts received from foreign dignitaries are accepted to avoid “embarrassment to donor and US Government”, but are then shipped off to the National Archives and Records Administration.

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott gave Mr Obama a custom-built Malibu surfboard in Air Force One colours, stamped with the official Presidential seal, when the pair met in 2014; Julia Gillard gave him a green and white 2GB iPod Shuffle, Sherrin match football, Western Bulldogs AFL jersey and a wooden trinket box.

The forms also show that Mr Obama in his last year as president became a member of two companies: Homefront Holdings LLC and Renegade 44 LLC, both of Washington, DC.

Additionally, the forms show that Mr Obama took on between $656,000 ($US500,000) and $1.3 million ($US1 million) in debt in his final year in office — in the form of a promissory note to JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Former president George W. Bush’s also accepted exactly 11 gifts during his last year in office, according to disclosure forms, including a $471 ($US359) “wireless reading device” from Vice President Dick Cheney and a $3936 ($US3000) business suit.

This article first appeared on the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission.

Originally published as Obama’s final $39,000 haul of gifts revealed in official disclosure forms