I’ve been randomly speculating about Trump’s candidacy, his purported worth, and how much he or someone like him would be willing to spend to win. But a campaign is long and arduous and even if you have the most money or spend the most, you may not necessarily win. Plus, you are beholden to your party apparatus and supporters. So, for fun, I thought what it would cost if someone could just outright buy the US presidency. My scenario would be:
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Only US citizens and otherwise qualified individuals can buy it. Same rules on eligibility apply
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It cannot be a shared position though of course once president, someone is free to delegate how he or she deems appropriate. Someone HAS to be president, it cannot be purchased by Apple, for instance, it must be by Tim Cook
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No foreign money. Another country cannot find one person they want to give a few billion dollars to and buy it for him.
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Purchase must be in cash, not stocks or bonds or holdings or net worth. Someone has to have the cash ready to be transferred all at once at the moment the auction is closed. If you’re worth a lot but have it mostly in property, holdings, etc., you’ll have to sell that off before you make the purchase
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For ease, let’s say the person has to exist right now and have that money. No fictional billionaires. No “well if there’s a guy who’s worth a trillion dollars…”
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No other members of the legislature can be bought. Elections and rules governing them would remain the same. So you can only get the presidency, not all of Congress too
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For the purposes of this hypothetical, Congress may not impeach the president unless its an actual, serious felony
According to Google, there’s 615 billionaires in America. Not sure how many would qualify for president, but let’s say its around that many. I’m certain the cost would be in the billions, but these guys would go from a position of almost absolute authority to having to share it with 535 other people. You can do a lot as a president but you can also be blocked from doing things. I’m sure Congress and the American people would have some issues with somebody who didn’t campaign, didn’t bother to try to convince anyone he’s the right person for the job, and just bought into it. For many, the inauguration would be the first real look you’d see of the guy, not to mention you probably have little idea of what policies he favors.
And maybe for a guy with only a couple billion, he wouldn’t spend like half or most of his net worth on something that only lasts 4 years and you’re not guaranteed to be able to do major things. I mean, think of some past presidents. Would you pay a billion dollars to be GWB and be hated? Would it be worth a billion dollars to have Nixon’s presidency?
Another thing I considered was current billionaire kingmakers in the GOP. The Koch brothers have like $50 billion between them, but reports say they only spend like $400 million in 2012. I don’t know how much of that was because laws prevented them from spending more, but even if someone’s worth that much and the prize was the actual presidency, I don’t think most billionaires, even politically active ones, would consider a 4 year deal to be worth in the billions. I’m sure they would spend more, but I don’t think they’d drop like $10 billion on it. They’re businessmen, well most billionaires are, and they spend to make money for their enterprises. If one of them was president, I don’t think they can wring out $10 billion from 4 years of work. It would be a net loss for them, so they wouldn’t do it.
I think the cost of the presidency’s got to be somewhere around $5 billion. I don’t think it’ll reach into the 10+ billions, there’s just not that much money to be made as a politician. Fanatical fundies who have crazy social beliefs don’t have that kind of money, and nobody else would feel its worth it. Maybe between $3-$6 billion is my guess. What say you?