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

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.

Elvis, on the other hand, had already witnessed his stardom rise and fall with the times. After his spectacular initial success in the music business, he’d moved into Hollywood movies – but the world had moved on while his back was turned. Now, the charts were filled with anti-establishment figures such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Never one to be kept down, though, Elvis had returned to the limelight some two years earlier in 1968. And while the fans were slightly older, the reaction to the King of Rock and Roll was much the same. By 1970 he was headlining packed Las Vegas concerts and was selected among the Junior Chamber’s Top Ten Most Outstanding Young Men in America.

Successful once more, Elvis began splashing out in an outlandish manner. And after one blow-out, during which he spent $100,000 on vehicles and weapons, he earned his parents’ wrath. Frustrated with their criticisms, he hopped on a plane to Los Angeles via Washington, D.C.

It was there, it seems, that Elvis conceived a somewhat outlandish plan. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the star decided in Los Angeles that he wanted to add another badge to his growing array of police memorabilia. This time, apparently, he wished to get his hands on a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge.

“The narc badge represented some kind of ultimate power to him,” Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla explained in her 1985 memoir Elvis and Me. “With the federal narcotics badge [he believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drug he wished.” So the star already had an obsession with law enforcement and now his mind was fixed on this prize.

But how could a civilian get hold of such an item – even someone as well-connected as the King of Rock and Roll? Clearly, he’d need to aim high. So Elvis turned around and headed back to Washington, spending his night-time journey penning a long message to Nixon, whom he’d never met.

In the six-page missive, Elvis introduced himself and claimed that he’d previously met with Spiro Agnew, then Nixon’s deputy. But after this somewhat professional beginning, the star launched into something of an anti-pop culture tirade. According to the letter, there were all manner of forces out to destroy the American dream.

“I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country,” Elvis wrote. “The drug culture, hippie elements, the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society], Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it the establishment. I call it America and I love it.”

Apparently, Elvis believed that the groups in question did not see him as part of the authorities that they were fighting against. And so, he argued, he was in the perfect position to work against these allegedly nefarious forces. Bizarrely, he even claimed to have conducted an “in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques.”

But Elvis wasn’t offering his services in the battle against the counterculture for free. Instead, he asked to be made a “Federal Agent at Large” – a title that appears to have been his own creation, as it had no basis in reality. And he was clearly committed to the role. In fact, he told Nixon in the letter, he’d be staying in Washington until he’d managed to obtain these outlandish “credentials.”

After giving Nixon the details of his alias and the hotel where he was lodging, Elvis signed off the bizarre and rambling letter. And as soon as their plane touched down in Washington, the star and his long-suffering aide Jerry Schilling hopped into a limousine straight to the White House.

Wearing a suitably outlandish topcoat and carrying a cane, Elvis leapt out of the vehicle and gave his letter to one of the security staff standing outside, who failed to realize who their extravagantly attired visitor was. After all, who would’ve expected the King of Rock and Roll to come barreling down Pennsylvania Avenue at the break of dawn with a message for the president himself?

Despite the unlikeliness of the situation, though, Elvis really did want to meet the president. And White House staff soon found themselves trying to manage a bizarre situation. Luckily for the star, his letter fell into the hands of Egil Krogh, known as Bud, an assistant of Nixon’s who loved Elvis’ music.

Presumably keen to see his hero meet his boss, Krogh got to work on making the meeting a reality. And eventually he convinced his superiors to go along with the idea. In a message to Nixon, another of his advisors, Dwight Chapin, outlined the potential benefits of meeting the rock and roll star to the presumably baffled president.

“If the President wants to meet with some bright young people outside of the government,” Chapin wrote, “Presley might be a perfect one to start with.” Amazingly, Nixon agreed, and Krogh called Schilling to arrange the face-to-face. But even with permission to meet with the president now in place, Elvis’ experience at the White House was anything but smooth.

Elvis, you see, believed in making an entrance. And he arrived on Pennsylvania Avenue in an outfit that was outrageous even by his standards. Wearing a purple suit made from velvet and accessorized with sunglasses and a huge gold buckle, the King of Rock and Roll certainly looked the part. Style, though, wasn’t all that he was packing.

As a gift to Nixon, Elvis had also brought along a gun – a Colt .45 pistol inscribed with a message to mark the occasion. No one, it seemed, had told him about one of the most important White House rules: weapons are not allowed. So before he could enter the building, he was stopped by security staff.

“I got a call from the Secret Service telling me we had a little problem, because Elvis had brought a gun in to give to the president,” Krogh once told the documentary series Frontline, according to a 2016 article by Cleveland.com. “I had to go over and explain to them that ‘No guns in the Oval Office’ was standard policy around here.”

Though the gun had to be confiscated from Elvis before he could go in, the weapon eventually made its way to its intended recipient. And finally, at around 12:30 p.m., the star stepped into the Oval Office. As Krogh looked on, two giants of the 20th century met at last – with the moment captured forever on film.

So what exactly did Elvis and Nixon talk about during their meeting at the White House? And did they get along? Speaking to Frontline, Krogh said, “It was a little bit awkward at first, because I’m not sure that Elvis really believed that he was there.” Still, it wasn’t long before the star found himself at ease.

The conversation, though, soon took a turn towards the bizarre. Prior to the meeting, Krogh had compiled an agenda featuring a number of talking points, such as drug-related deaths, that Elvis and Nixon could talk about. And below that, he’d drafted some ideas as to how the star could assist the government in communicating with the younger generations.

Among these ideas, records show, was a suggestion that Elvis could host a TV show highlighting the “anti-American” topics in popular songs. But that was only the beginning. Apparently, Krogh also proposed the creation of a musical focused around the theme “Get High on Life.” An accompanying album, the aide suggested, could be recorded inside a rehab center.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Get High on Life musical never saw the light of day. Instead, Elvis and Nixon took the conversation in a different direction. Krogh recalled, “They had a really weird discussion about a lot of things that had nothing to do with the talking points I had written.”

Unfortunately, though, the infamous White House recording system – which would later contribute to Nixon’s downfall – was still to be set up. So we only have Krogh’s recollections and a few striking photographs to remember the encounter by. But what exactly went down within the White House’s walls?

According to Krogh, the two men spoke about how Elvis could use his fame to influence the younger generation. But surprisingly, the King of Rock and Roll didn’t believe that all musicians were a force for good. In fact, he allegedly spoke out against The Beatles, blaming them for pushing “anti-American” sentiment amongst their fans.

“The president then indicated that those who use drugs are also those in the vanguard of anti-American protest,” Krogh wrote. “Violence, drug usage, dissent, protest all seem to merge in generally the same group of young people.” But despite these beliefs, which appear to be the antithesis of rock and roll, Elvis assured Nixon that he was “on your side.”

Again, it seems, Elvis repeated the remarkable claim that he’d spent years “studying Communist brainwashing and the drug culture” and that this knowledge could help him infiltrate the counterculture. Had he really been training to act as an undercover spy? Or was he merely indulging a fantasy that painted him as a covert government operative working towards the greater good?

After all, the star coveted all the trimmings of law enforcement and even brought along his badges to show to the President. Around the same time, he revealed what Krogh believed was the “real reason” for his visit. Speaking to Frontline, the former aide recalled, “Elvis said, ‘Mr. President, can you get me a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs?’”

Surprisingly, Nixon was open to the idea. Krogh continued, “And the president looked and he said, ‘Bud, can we get him a badge?’ And I said, ‘Well, Mr. President, if you want to get him a badge, we can do that.’ He said, ‘Well, get him a badge.” So it was, then, that Elvis succeeded in acquiring the ultimate memento from his time at the White House.

The badge, of course, was purely ceremonial in nature – but Elvis may not have believed this was the case. According to reports, the star continued to keep the gift with him for the rest of his days. And at one point, he even took to placing a siren on the roof of his car and driving through Memphis as if he was a real federal officer.

As much as Elvis might’ve wanted to be taken seriously, though, he couldn’t escape his fame – even at the White House. Alongside the pistol, he also presented Nixon with his autograph and pictures of his family. And when aides attempted to show the star around the building, they were forced to cut things short.

“There was just too much commotion,” Schilling recalled in an interview with the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. “The girls that worked at the White House were peeking out of the offices. And Elvis kisses one of the secretaries.” Shockingly, that wasn’t the only inappropriate moment during the visit – apparently, the star also drew Nixon himself in for an embrace.

Given the high profiles of both Nixon and Elvis, two of the most famous men in America at the time, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this meeting made front page news. But as per the star’s instructions, the whole affair remained under wraps. And even when a journalist finally covered the encounter in 1971, it generated surprisingly little attention.

So what was the outcome of this unlikely meeting between a president and a rock star at the top of his game? Well, as it turns out, Elvis’ new career as the savior of America’s youth failed to materialize. But the pair remained in touch for some time before the King died in 1977 – probably due in part to his addiction to prescription drugs.

By then, Nixon had experienced his own downfall, of course. After the Watergate Scandal broke in June 1972 he resigned from office, effectively ending his political career. Years later, a photograph of the former president shaking hands with Elvis at the White House became the most requested item in the history of the National Archives. Showing two men at the height of their influence, before everything came tumbling down, it remains one of the 20th century’s most arresting images.