# POTUS wants to visit my home or business: Can I refuse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703 "2015-02-03T14:09:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/21 "2015-02-03T19:32:35Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > I’m sure he listens carefully to their advice, but I’m skeptical that the President needs the permission of the Secret Service. If the President really, truly wants to go somewhere the Secret Service will suck it up and do what they need to. The question is how often have you ever seen that happen? Especially into someone’s house? It hasn’t happened and it won’t happen. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/22 "2015-02-03T19:37:37Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The plant agrees to do so because it’s cool to have the POTUS visit. Yeah, I’d shut down for a week for the chance to get a picture of President Obama shaking my hand. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/23 "2015-02-03T20:11:42Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The plant agrees to do so because it’s cool to have the POTUS visit. Yes but in this case he didn’t visit the factory. He was just in the area. Maybe it was a factory that produced explosive chemicals or something. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/24 "2015-02-03T21:24:56Z")
I’m not sure about precedents with the President (see what I did there?), but VP Biden was turned away in this very manner by a bakery owner in Virginia. One [cite](http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/16/store-owner-turns-away-biden-over-obamas-you-didnt-built-that-comments/): > [@](#): > > Chris McMurray, the founder and owner of “Crumb and Get it” in Radford, turned away the vice president’s advance team when they approached him about using his establishment as a stop on the way to a campaign rally in Blacksburg, Va., WDBJ7 reports. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/25 "2015-02-04T01:16:37Z")
In the movie _The Right Stuff_ there’s a scene where the VP wants to come in to one of the astronauts homes and interview the wife. The wife wants nothing to do with it and refuses. LBJ (VP at the time) throws a fit and they make the astronaut call his wife and tell her to let the VP in. He calls his wife and tells her it’s her call. LBJ doesn’t get in. So yeah, you can tell the POTUS to go pound sand. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2015, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/26 "2015-02-04T07:21:58Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Even just having the president in your region can be disruptive. The last time Obama came to Detroit, they closed a major freeway to the public while he was travelling on it, basically creating a rolling demilitarized zone around the presidential limo. And when he was finished with whatever political gladhanding brought him here, they did it again so he could go back to the airport. Even a deceased ex-president can shut down a freeway, creating a rolling demilitarized zone while his deceased ex-presidential hearse rolls through, as happened on a stretch of US-101 during Ronald Reagan’s week-long royal funeral. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2015, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/27 "2015-02-04T07:28:25Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > If the President really, truly wants to go somewhere the Secret Service will suck it up and do what they need to. The question is how often have you ever seen that happen? Especially into someone’s house? It hasn’t happened and it won’t happen. President Kennedy was famous (or infamous from the Secret Service point of view) for running off into crowds, and choosing to get driven around in a convertible with the top down. (And look what that choice got him.) [Famous pics of Kennedy at the beach, and convertible with top down.](http://latimespast.tumblr.com/post/67591627752/president-john-f-kennedy-was-known-for-his) ---
**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:** [February 4, 2015, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/28 "2015-02-04T07:39:41Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > In the movie _The Right Stuff_ there’s a scene where the VP wants to come in to one of the astronauts homes and interview the wife. The wife wants nothing to do with it and refuses. LBJ (VP at the time) throws a fit and they make the astronaut call his wife and tell her to let the VP in. He calls his wife and tells her it’s her call. LBJ doesn’t get in. So yeah, you can tell the POTUS to go pound sand. Since you didn’t name the astronaut (or his wife), I’m guessing you’re not clear on the actual details. The astronaut in question was John Glenn. His wife, Annie (Castor) Glenn, was a life-long stutterer and had been horribly, phobically publicity shy because of it. I’m pretty sure the relevant scenes (there were several of them in the movie) were highly exaggerated. That particular movie didn’t let the actual facts get in the way of a good story. Mrs. Glenn later completed some intensive speech training program and was able to overcome her publicity-shyness, and did some public speaking. [Wiki article on Annie Glenn.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Glenn) ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/29 "2015-02-04T08:42:52Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > In the movie _The Right Stuff_ there’s a scene where the VP wants to come in to one of the astronauts homes and interview the wife. The wife wants nothing to do with it and refuses. LBJ (VP at the time) throws a fit and they make the astronaut call his wife and tell her to let the VP in. He calls his wife and tells her it’s her call. LBJ doesn’t get in. So yeah, you can tell the POTUS to go pound sand. You’re citing Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/30 "2015-02-04T12:42:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > In the real world, a Presidential visit is so disruptive and requires so much preparation and surrounding activity when it occurs that no President would ever go where he or she isn’t assured to be warmly welcomes. Why go to your home unexpectedly or on a forced basis only to have you set up an embarrassing demonstration? It’s all political theater on their parts because it has to be in the modern world. Well there was that incident where Michelle Obama was in a store and a customer thought she was a worker and asked her for some help getting a box off a high shelf. And I think its happened a few times when a president decides to walk into say a bar and some people suddenly find themselves in the spotlight. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703/31 "2015-02-04T14:07:57Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Well there was that incident where Michelle Obama was in a store and a customer thought she was a worker and asked her for some help getting a box off a high shelf. In the early telling of the story, she was asked to help because she’s tall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potus-wants-to-visit-my-home-or-business-can-i-refuse/711703.md?page=1)