Expelled congressman George Santos is capitalizing on his infamy as a national disgrace. The self-described “former congressional icon” started offering his services on custom video platform Cameo soon after his expulsion from Congress, and now he’s reportedly pulling in six figures from churning out short videos on the site.
Santos’s annual salary as a member of the House of Representatives was $174,000. According to no less an authoritative source than Cameo CEO Steven Galanis himself, Santos made more than that in his first 48 hours on the platform, going on to call Santos “an absolute whale” for Cameo, similarly to congressional candidate turned Cameo celeb Sarah Palin. But Santos himself says he’s not just in it for the money:
“Obviously there’s a monetary benefit — I’m not here doing it for charity — but the other aspect is to remind these assholes who think they’re holier-than-thou that they will be forgotten in history and I will live forever, period.”
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While Cameo might not be the ideal platform for historical immortality, it is a pretty lucrative one for Santos, who seems to be on a temporary Cameo hiatus as of this writing. But he reportedly launched at an “underpriced” $75 a pop before raising his rates and basking in his infamy/publicity.
Santos might need the extra money, since his expulsion from Congress is not the end of his ongoing legal troubles, which include an indictment on 23 counts of fraud and other alleged crimes. And he’s also got his sights on other avenues of fame beyond the custom video game, albeit one with what he sees as a baked-in ideological conflict, telling Semafor, “there’s this big disconnect that the entertainment industry is trying to cross me over to become a reality star, but they are forgetting one thing — I am the most conservative member of the New York delegation.”
That may or may not preclude him from being the next Kardashian, but Galanis says he’s perfect for Cameo: “This platform was built for him and he was built for it,” the Cameo CEO said.