[rcv]

Do you really not see the difference here? It's amazing how hard people will try to bOtH sIdEs this administration.

1) Obama was not in office when this advance was given. What favors could Penguin Random House have been trying to bribe him for?

2) The Obamas were paid a $65M advance on their books, which while a huge sum it was actually seen as a reasonable investment at the time given the expected popularity of those books[1]. Both books were insane hits and sold like crazy. "A Promised Land" sold ~900k copies _on the first day_[2]. They almost certainly earned out on advance and are probably continuing to rake in more from sales.

3) This Melania movie is widely expected to have very poor sales. While making unpopular movies isn't in itself a crime, the amount paid in royalties to her does not look to any reasonable person like a sound investment. At least, not if you expect your return to be in ticket sales or streaming fees.

[1] https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/2/14779892/barack-michell... [2] https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/526599-bar...