# Has a US President ever been refused service at a business? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829 "2015-12-08T17:49:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/21 "2015-12-09T10:04:17Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Considering the massive waves of insta-hate and potential litigation, much motioned by flaccid news media seeking a hard-on substitute, merely for declining to make a cake for whatever group one doesn’t care for, such as nazis or gays or confederates, it would be massively better to let the fellow in with a polite smile immediately, even if you loathed him. So, Presidents of the Unites States are a protected (against discrimination) class now? ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/22 "2015-12-09T14:34:52Z")
In hindsight, it was probably just as well for Obama that he didn’t go golfing at **Trump National** last fall. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/23 "2015-12-09T16:26:43Z")
Again, not exactly on point, but there have been athletes who have been invited to the White House (usually as part of the honoring of a championship team) who have [declined](http://theweek.com/articles/460872/18-athletes-who-refused-visit-white-house), often due to political differences. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/24 "2015-12-09T17:18:22Z")
What about earlier in the nation’s history, when the security apparatus had not been built, and Presidents could roam around “off-leash”? Especially before the Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/25 "2015-12-09T17:25:45Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > What about earlier in the nation’s history, when the security apparatus had not been built, and Presidents could roam around “off-leash”? Especially before the Civil War. Go back far enough, and they might not even have recognised the President? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/26 "2015-12-09T18:07:26Z")
One of my favorite examples of what the new republic was supposed to be like, in contrast to the monarchies across the pond - when Jefferson was done with the inauguration in 1801, he walked back to his rooming house for dinner and went up to his room. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/27 "2015-12-09T19:26:39Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Again, not exactly on point, but there have been athletes who have been invited to the White House (usually as part of the honoring of a championship team) who have [declined](http://theweek.com/articles/460872/18-athletes-who-refused-visit-white-house), often due to political differences. What happened to “respecting the office”? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/28 "2015-12-09T19:44:57Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > Occasionally, the President of the United States of America goes to a shop or a restaurant just like a normal person (if normal people went around with posses of armed guards). Has any business owner ever said “Nope, the President’s not welcome here!”? It’ll never happen because the president doesn’t just pop-in to places without planning. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/29 "2015-12-09T19:53:33Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Clerk: “Oh, I’m sorry, sir, we can’t give you that room: we have to keep it open in case the President shows up” [http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-12-30](http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-12-30) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/30 "2015-12-09T19:56:00Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > It’ll never happen because the president doesn’t just pop-in to places without planning. [Yes he does.](https://youtu.be/87mVw4zq3Aw?t=90) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/31 "2015-12-09T20:12:46Z")
Bill Clinton certainly had a tough time getting accepted for membership at country clubs while planning his departure from office and moving to Westchester County. The official line was that they don’t give preferential treatment for membership - no jumping the line. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/32 "2015-12-09T21:56:29Z")
Closest I’ve heard of is a case in 1994, when 6 black Secret Service agents for President (Bill) Clinton were refused a table at a Denny’s restaurant in Maryland, while their white colleagues were seated & served. But it was just them, the President himself was not there. That was just one incident in a pattern of discrimination by Denny’s, which led to them eventually paying a fine of $50 million+. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/33 "2015-12-10T02:18:15Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I first heard that joke as a kid in the 1970s. Yep. Oh…\*first \*heard it…60s, for me… Probably from the 50s. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/34 "2015-12-10T02:21:43Z")
Lincoln rode around by himself on his horse. Ironically the bill that created the Secret Service was on Lincoln’s desk the night he was killed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/35 "2015-12-10T12:56:24Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > What happened to “respecting the office”? Yep, a president I actively disliked stops into my place of business and I’d treat him the same way I’d treat a president I actively campaigned for. It’s not Bush, Carter, Nison, Clinton, Obama, etc it’s _the fucking president_! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/36 "2015-12-10T13:00:03Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Lincoln rode around by himself on his horse. But he never went out without a pocketful of pennies, which he used as ID! ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829/37 "2015-12-10T15:17:18Z")
I have never worked where a president showed up, but plenty of senators and the odd governor, and it was a big deal, well planned in advance…and they were always significantly late. Very disruptive to the business. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-us-president-ever-been-refused-service-at-a-business/739829.md?page=1)