On several occasions, Obama has written personal checks to struggling families, once trained a rattlesnake to do his laundry

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On several occasions, Obama has written personal checks to struggling families, once trained a rattlesnake to do his laundry

“…zero zero zero zero zero zero zero…”

According to a new book by Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow,Barack Obama has, when the mood strikes him, written personal checks to families who are struggling as part of his habit of reading 10 personal letters a day addressed to the president.

“A few times during his presidency, Obama admitted, he had written a personal check or made a phone call on the writer’s behalf, believing that it was his only way to ensure a fast result,” Eli Saslow writes in his newly released Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President.

“It’s not something I should advertise, but it has happened,” the president told Saslow. “Some of these letters you read and you say, ‘Gosh, I really want to help this person, and I may not have the tools to help them right now. And then you start thinking about the fact that for every one person that wrote describing their story, there might be another hundred thousand going through the same thing. So there are times when I’m reading the letters and I feel pained that I can’t do more, faster, to make a difference in their lives.”

It’s unknown whether he signs the check “Barack Obama” on his “Mr. and Mrs. Obama” checks with Garfield on them or whether his bank sends funds to the person in need.

Via