In the midst of the Iran war and airport unrest, Trump heads to Elvis Presley’s Graceland

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — President Donald Trump gave a surprise tour of Elvis Presley’s Graceland on Monday while in Memphis, a distraction from the war in Iran and efforts to address long lines at U.S. airports, where he marveled at how famous the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was and wondered aloud whether he could beat him in a fight.

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Trump has for years played Presley’s music at his rallies across the country and has often compared himself to Presley. He was in Memphis to attend a roundtable on efforts to address crime in the city.

“I think I’ll see Graceland next. Is that so?” Trump said during the meeting. “I love Elvis.”

Trump’s side trip to a top tourist attraction — which has at times been ranked as the second most visited private home in the United States after the White House — came as thousands of Americans across the country wade through long lines at airport security checkpoints, with Trump sending federal immigration officers to assist the Transportation Security Administration during the ongoing Homeland Security shutdown.

Although Trump was in Tennessee on Monday after ordering a “temporary” halt to planned strikes on Iranian power plants, US forces remain embroiled in the sprawling regional conflict.

The late singer’s stately home, with its stone facade and white-columned entrance, is located 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 in honor of Presley, the singer and actor who died in August 1977 at the age of 42.

Graceland was temporarily closed so Trump could take a short private tour, including inspecting the Army helmet on which Presley had inscribed his initials “EP” after attending basic training in 1958. He also found a bread warmer in the kitchen and wandered through the den known as the “Jungle Room” for its green carpet, Polynesian-style furniture and indoor rock waterfall.

Trump also marveled at Presley’s gold-plated Social Security card, suggesting the style of the card may be something authorities might want to return. Later, looking at Pressley’s gold phone, the president said: “I’d like to hear some of those conversations.”

Tours of the house do not include the bathroom where Presley died. But the president was handed a guitar to sign by a Graceland guide who wore gloves to handle special items. The president was told that the machine was a replica of one Presley used during his famous “Aloha from Hawaii” concert in 1973.

After being told that Elvis didn’t actually play the guitar he signed, Trump got thinking. “Would I have taken him in a fight?” He asked about Elvis, whom he lamented that he had never met.

“Who would be more famous than Elvis?” He offered with a smile, when he suggested that visitors could one day come take a look at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

The Trump campaign’s pre-show set list often includes some of Presley’s music, such as “Suspicious Minds,” “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,” a medley of “Dixie” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Sometimes, huge digital screens at his rallies would show videos of Presley’s concerts.

Trump has often compared himself to Elvis, once posting a composite photo on social media with half of Presley’s face on one side and his own on the other.

“For many years people have been saying that Elvis and I look alike. Now this picture is everywhere,” Trump wrote. “What do you think?”

Later that year, he shared on social media a black-and-white photo depicting Trump standing next to the singer as he played the guitar.

Trump also shouted out the late musician from the stage, opening a 2018 rally in Tupelo, Mississippi — Presley’s hometown — by joking that people were saying he looked like him at one point.

“We love Elvis. I shouldn’t say this, you’ll say I’m too conceited because I’m not, but other than the blonde hair when I was growing up they said I looked like Elvis, you see that, you believe it?”

AP writer Will Weissert contributed from Washington. Kennard reported from Chapin, SC