From elephants to inline skates, a history of foreign gifts to presidents

For most people, exchanging gifts is reserved for special occasions: birthdays, holidays, graduations. For presidents, it happens nearly every day.

Many presents that reach the White House’s gifts office come from citizens of the United States and other countries, according to the National Archives and Records Administration. More elaborate are the gifts of state - those given to presidents and first family members by foreign leaders in the name of diplomacy.

In 2008, George W. Bush was gifted a pair of inline skates from the Netherlands. In 2011, Barack Obama was given a red, white and blue basketball signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. At least two presidents - Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan - received baby elephants.

The tradition of presidential gifts was brought to the forefront Sunday when President Donald Trump said he planned to accept a Boeing jet from Qatar that would temporarily serve as Air Force One. The announcement raised questions about whether taking the plane, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, would violate law on foreign gifts.

Under federal law, the president and all federal employees have to report in annual disclosures any foreign gifts valued over $480. While they may accept larger gifts, the items are almost always turned over for archiving. If a president or first family wants to keep a present worth more than $480, they have to formally declare their intent to keep it and pay federal taxes on it.

Presidential gifts have remained largely ceremonial until now - a way for officials to celebrate international relationships, learn about other cultures, mark historic state visits and even share a laugh. The tradition is as old as the presidency itself; George Washington seems to have done it five years before he took office.

In 1784, King Charles III of Spain gave Washington a donkey, which he aptly named “Royal Gift.” The gift “was designed in part to cement the friendship between the two nations” as the U.S. established its national identity, according to the nonprofit Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, which oversees Washington’s estate.

By the late 1990s, presidents and first family members were receiving about 15,000 gifts per year from both foreign governments and private citizens. The National Archives in 1996 displayed the gifts of 12 presidents in a “Tokens and Treasures” exhibit that The Washington Post quipped was “putting the present in president.”

The gifts have run the gamut. When Obama made his first official visit to Australia in 2011, he snagged a crocodile attack insurance policy from the Northern Territory’s chief minister. If he had been attacked by a crocodile, the policy would have paid out $50,000 to his wife, then-first lady Michelle Obama, Reuters reported.

“I have to admit when we reformed health care in America, crocodile insurance is one thing we left out,” Barack Obama said after receiving the gift.

The insurance policy - in a frame with its full terms - was transferred in 2017 to the National Archives, where most foreign gifts are held. Others are included in the collections of the country’s 16 presidential libraries.

When Obama returned to Australia in 2014, the prime minister gave him a blue and white longboard with “friendship flags” and a presidential seal. Reagan received dozens of saddles during his presidency, as many of his foreign counterparts recognized his love of horse riding.

One of the most widely known symbols of the American presidency was itself a foreign gift. The Resolute Desk in the Oval Office was a gift from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. The desk was made from timbers of the HMS Resolute, a ship recovered by an American whaler and then sent to England by Congress as a signal of friendship.

In return, Queen Victoria gave Hayes the desk made from the ship’s timbers. Nearly every sitting president since then, including Trump, has used it.

In addition to Washington, a number of other presidents have received animals as diplomatic gifts. John F. Kennedy and his family received a dog, named Pushinka, from Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. In 2005, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov sent George W. Bush a puppy. In 1959, Eisenhower received a baby elephant from the Republic of Congo, and Reagan received one from Sri Lanka in 1984.

The beloved tradition of giant pandas visiting the National Zoo also has its origins in a foreign gift. At a 1972 banquet in Beijing, then-first lady Pat Nixon saw a cigarette tin with two giant pandas emblazoned on it. She sat beside Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

“Aren’t they cute?” Nixon remarked. “I love them.”

The premier gave her a pledge then and there, marking the start of a decades-long obsession in Washington: “I’ll give you some.”