Former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama agreed to repay $2.3 million to the Department of the Treasury she received from the general fund for “White House expenses.”
A rumor that circulated online in July 2025 claimed former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama agreed to repay $2.3 million to the Department of the Treasury that she had received from the general fund for “White House expenses.”
For example, on July 10, an X user posted (archived) about the rumor with a picture of Obama.
(@17QStorm/X)
The post featured the following text caption:
Michelle Obama needs to repay $2.3 million to the U.S. Treasury—money she quietly received from the general fund under the label of “White House Expenses.”
An independent auditor flagged the payments, which were funneled out just before the Obamas walked out of the Executive Mansion.
Turns out they weren’t qualified expenses after all. The American people were never supposed to foot this bill. But they did—until now.
Some users on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived) seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets — including conservative bloggers — reporting on this rumor. If Obama had truly agreed to repay such a large sum of misappropriated funds, outlets worldwide would have provided coverage about the matter.
Rather, the rumor about Obama agreeing to repay $2.3 million to the Treasury Department originated on the America’s Last Line of Defense Facebook page — one of several Facebook pages and websites comprising a network of parody and satire. The page displays the username of “ALLODSatire.”
On July 10, a manager of the ALLOD page posted (archived) a Facebook reel — Meta’s term for brief videos on Facebook and Instagram — promoting the rumor with the headline “Another Obama Scam Uncovered.” The post received more than 80,000 reactions and 1.1 million views.
(America’s Last Line of Defense/Facebook)
The reel, displaying a small “S” for “satire” label, featured the following words:
Michelle Obama will repay the US Treasury $2.3 million she received from the general fund for “White House expenses.”
A federal auditor found that the payments, which occurred just before the Obama’s left the Executive Mansion, weren’t qualified expenses.
“The US taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for her daughter’s graduation party or Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.”
The DC District Court Magistrate gave her 30 days to pay it back.
The “About Us” page on the ALLOD-owned Dunning-Kruger Times’ website also displayed a disclaimer about the network’s content, reading in part:
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site’s pure fantasy and actual people, places and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims in the past, including the assertion that Obama received a monthly payment of $122,000 from the General Services Administration since 2009, as well as another matter claiming Chelsea Clinton received $84 million in taxpayer dollars from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.
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