When Elvis Met Richard Nixon In The White House, He Made This Seriously Foolish Mistake

Within the walls of the White House, two 20th-century icons are about to meet. One is an infamous politician at the peak of his power, the other a legendary musician making a return to the spotlight. But Elvis Presley nearly didn’t get to shake hands with Richard Nixon. That’s because he made a major error at the threshold of the president’s home.

Even before the King’s foolish mistake, the meeting seemed odd. Why were these two unlikely companions getting together at all? The day that Elvis encountered Tricky Dicky has gone down in history as one of the weirdest moments ever in the White House – and that’s saying a lot.

But if the reason for the meeting was somewhat bizarre, the actual event was even stranger. Behind closed doors, the two men – along with advisor Bud Krogh – chatted and compared notes on their respective careers. All the while, Elvis may have been thanking his lucky stars that his serious error of judgment hadn’t cost him access to the Oval Office.

So what did the King do to nearly bar himself from entering Nixon’s home? And how did he recover to take part in a meeting of minds that still baffles and fascinates the public more than 50 years later? Today, a photo of this fateful encounter is one of the most popular in history – but the full story behind it is rarely told.

Well, before the extraordinary meeting had taken place, both men had already cemented themselves as leading figures of the day. Famously, Nixon had been inaugurated as president in January 1969. He’d been in the role for a while, then, before he invited Elvis into the White House in December 1970. And the scandal that would end his time in office – yes, we’re talking about Watergate – was still more than a year away.