Hi, Charlie here. Being the President is a very tough job that's why it's so great
that when you finish your term in office you can retire and do whatever you want
right well not exactly in reality there are many strict rules former presidents have to
follow when they leave office a lot of the time when a president retires they make a lot of money
for example the obamas have raked in 200 million dollars since leaving office but their life is
heavily restricted and many people don't realize this before taking the job from not being allowed
to drive or use cell phones to never being left alone ever again even in the bathroom
no driving everyone hates getting stuck in traffic but the president never has that problem before
their motorcade drives on any road the road is cleared of all traffic this is because of security
and also logistical reasons president's trips have to be very fast because they're very expensive
it costs around three thousand dollars per minute to transport the president of the united states
around when you're president there's a rule that you can't drive on normal roads and unfortunately
for presidents this actually extends to after they leave office that's right former presidents
can never drive on the road again instead they are driven by their secret service detail which
former presidents get for the rest of their lives ex-presidents are always a target for
people who may want to do them harm so that's why they're only transported in armoured cars
george bush says he's only allowed to drive on his own private property not on public roads
all of these secret service agents who drive former presidents are trained and evasive and
defensive driving maneuvers this has been the case ever since 1963 when jfk was assassinated
while he wasn't driving himself at the time the driver was not trained well
no badmouthing presidents often have big disagreements on major issues but no matter
how much a president dislikes their successor they can never talk bad about them at least that's the
technical rule in place ex-presidents are not supposed to talk badly about any other president
that comes after them this is an unwritten white house rule which has been followed for centuries
some would say that in the past few years this rule has been broken obama did not exactly speak
well about trump and trump also criticized obama a lot retired presidents are expected to stay out
of current affairs the rule is that they're not supposed to speak badly about other presidents in
public but of course in private they can say whatever they want national security updates
one of the main duties of the president of the united states is to keep up to date with any
threats to national security presidents will get these briefings multiple times a day generals and
cia officials will tell them what's going on around the world and how it may impact the usa
you may assume that when a president retires they can check out fully and not worry about
anything that's going on around the world well if you thought that then you would be wrong one rule
former presidents have to follow is that they still have to read national security briefings
every day now because they can't make decisions you may wonder why they need to do this well
they're not actually expected to do anything with the information that's given to them but they are
kept in the loop in case they have any advice they can offer to the current administration or if they
get asked about any situations by the media even as a non-sitting president they still need daily
updates about what's going on around the world many did not realize this happened until 2018
that was when trump threatened to take away obama's access to national security briefings
it turned out like many of us trump did not realize this was the norm
he was worried that obama was getting information which he shouldn't be getting
but now trump will be in that same situation getting all the information that biden gets
it came as a surprise to many of us when this made headlines in 2018 but it turns out that being the
president of the united states comes with rules for life you can never take your mind of world
affairs and politics because you're always being given briefings communications spying
it's no secret that the government is spying on everything you do every email and text you
send every phone call you make is tracked and recorded but this is even more the case for
former presidents they have pretty much no privacy when it comes to their communications to make sure
presidents are safe at any given time the secret service monitors all of their communications
they do this without a warrant at all times they use a device called a stingray this monitors the
location of cell phones all around a former president this means they pretty much know
who's around a former president at any given time also all of their emails and texts are
intercepted and read this means former presidents pretty much have zero privacy they do this in
case a former president gets a threatening phone call tweet or text library creation
you may have noticed libraries named after presidents well that's because it's actually
a law for this to happen going back to 1955. that's right if you serve as president you get
a library named after you when you leave office now you may think this is pretty cool but there is
a big downside to this the library includes every word a president has written while in office this
does not include any classified materials but it will also include anything you said which is not
so good for example scandals for example bill clinton's library contains lots of information
about his impeachment and also affair i did not have sexual relations with that woman
and the george bush library includes lots of information about the iraq war presidents are
not allowed to keep any materials out of their library this was a surprise to president richard
nixon he tried to leave out materials about the watergate scandal in his library but he was told
that he could not do this and it all had to be included however presidents do have some control
of the subject matter featured in their libraries for example with george bush's library in texas
it does mention the invasion of iraq but most of the materials defend his
decision to go into war and this made the library very controversial when it opened
never alone do you ever worry that in your old age you'll be all alone well former presidents never
have to worry about this that's because it's a rule that they're not allowed to go anywhere alone
if a former president ever wants some alone time then i've got some bad news for them
even when they're sleeping or going to the bathroom they can never be left alone
former secret service agent jonathan wackrow said presidential protection is the most intrusive
thing anyone could ever experience just imagine being constantly surrounded by people you barely
know secret service agents are often swapped out or moved around and this means that you'll never
get that close to them but they will always be close to you literally secret service agents even
have to go with former presidents during their vacations they can't even enjoy christmas or
thanksgiving dinner just as a family they always have to have guys with black suits and sunglasses
standing around and i'm not just talking about a few agents for example when trump and his family
sat down for thanksgiving dinner at mar-a-lago there were more than 150 secret service agents
that's because him and all of his family also had to have secret service agents of their own
male screening it's clear that former presidents have zero privacy and this even extends to their
mail all of their mail is intercepted and read this is in case anyone puts poison or explosives
in their mail now it turns out this is actually pretty useful the secret service has intercepted
explosives sent to bill clinton and barack obama before the mail is screened before it
gets anywhere near the president's mailbox in fact all of the email is taken to an off-site facility
where it's screened this is done through a secret program called dangerous mail investigations
the secret service only have 24 hours to search through a batch of mail
this is not a lot of time seeing as former presidents get a lot of mail
pension it's no secret that when a president leaves office they make a lot of money since
leaving office the clintons have made around 200 million dollars doing speeches and the obamas have
made a similar amount this is mainly from speeches book deals and movie deals but as well as that all
presidents are guaranteed a pension for the rest of their lives as of 2020 the amount is 219 000
per year whether you finish office or get impeached you're still entitled to this amount
state funeral when presidents pass away they are guaranteed a state funeral this is a very
elaborate ceremony which is televised all current and former presidents are expected to attend
there are also lots of rules at this funeral the us military has a 138-page planning document
for presidential funerals the most recent presidential funeral took place in 2018.
this was for george h w bush the 41st president of the united states opting out
if you're the president you may think that all of these rules would make your life hell after
leaving office so you may be wondering is there any way out well the answer is
yes you can actually opt out of all of these rules but this means that you also have to
refuse any secret service protection richard nixon did this so he would have more privacy
and trump's son donald trump jr refused his secret service protection to have more privacy too
protectees are strongly discouraged from doing this but it is an option if they want
but now it's time to make your voice heard comment down below which is the most surprising
rule former presidents have to follow if you want some more amazing videos then check out my second
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