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President Donald Trump took a surprise tour of Elvis Presley\u2019s Graceland on Monday while in Memphis, a diversion from the war in Iran and efforts to address long lines at U.S. airports during which he marveled at just how famous the King of Rock and Roll was and wondered aloud if he could have beaten him in a fight.<\/p>\n
Trump for years has played Presley\u2019s music at his campaign rallies across the country and often compared himself to Presley. He was in Memphis for a roundtable on efforts to address crime in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to see Graceland after this, I think. Is that right?\u201d Trump said during the meeting. \u201cI love Elvis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s side trip to a top tourist attraction \u2014 which has at times ranked as the second most-visited private home in the U.S. after the White House \u2014 came as thousands of Americans across the country are wading through long lines at security checkpoints at airports, where Trump sent\u00a0federal immigration officers\u00a0to assist the Transportation Security Administration during an ongoing Homeland Security shutdown.<\/p>\n
Also, though Trump was in Tennessee on Monday after ordering a \u201ctemporary\u201d halt to\u00a0planned strikes\u00a0on Iranian power plants, American forces are still embroiled in the sprawling regional conflict.<\/p>\n
The late singer\u2019s stately home, with its stone facade and white columned entrance, is just a few miles from the site of the roundtable meeting, which was also attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 as a tribute to Presley, the singer and actor who died in August 1977 at age 42.<\/p>\n
Graceland temporarily closed down so Trump could take a brief private tour, including examining an Army helmet Presley scrawled his \u201cEP\u201d initials in after reporting to basic training in 1958. He also scoped out a bread warmer in the kitchen and traipsed through the den known as \u201cthe Jungle Room\u201d because of its green shag carpet, Polynesian-style furniture and indoor rock waterfall.<\/p>\n
Trump also marveled at Presley\u2019s gold-plated Social Security card, suggesting that the style of card might be something authorities might want to bring back. Later, peering at Presley\u2019s gold phone, the president offered, \u201cI would like to hear some of those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tours of the home never include the bathroom where Presley died. But the president was handed a guitar to sign by a Graceland guide who pulled on gloves to handle special objects. The instrument was a replica of one used by Presley during his famous \u201cAloha From Hawaii\u201d concert in 1973, the president was told.<\/p>\n
After being told that Elvis had not actually played the guitar he\u2019d signed, Trump grew reflective. \u201cCould I have taken him in a fight?\u201d he asked of Elvis, whom he lamented having never met.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho else would be more famous than Elvis?\u201d he offered with a grin, when it was suggested that visitors could one day come to glimpse his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign rally pre-show set list often includes some of Presley\u2019s music, such as \u201cSuspicious Minds,\u201d \u201cI Want You, I Need You, I Love You,\u201d and a medley of \u201cDixie\u201d and \u201cThe Battle Hymn of the Republic.\u201d At times, massive digital screens at his rallies would play videos of Presley\u2019s concerts.<\/p>\n
Trump has often compared himself to Elvis, once posting a composite photograph on social media with half Presley\u2019s face on one side and his own on the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor so many years people have been saying that Elvis and I look alike. Now this pic has been going all over the place,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that year, he shared on social media a black-and-white image that depicted Trump standing alongside the singer as he played guitar.<\/p>\n
Trump has also shouted out the late musician from the stage, opening a 2018 rally in Tupelo, Mississippi \u2014 Presley\u2019s birthplace \u2014 by joking that people used to say that at one time he resembled him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love Elvis. I shouldn\u2019t say this, you\u2019ll say I\u2019m very conceited because I\u2019m not, but other than the blonde hair when I was growing up they said I looked like Elvis, do you see that, can you believe it?\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP writer Will Weissert contributed from Washington. Kinnard reported from Chapin, S.C., and can be reached at\u00a0http:\/\/x.com\/MegKinnardAP<\/p>\n
#planes #crash #airports #war #rages #Iran #Trump #visits #Graceland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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