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According to Washington Examiner:

April 2009: Obama gives Queen Elizabeth an iPod

White visiting the Queen, the Obama family gave her an iPod, prompting raised eyebrows from the British Press. The MP3 player came pre-loaded with photos from President Obama’s inauguration and audio files of the president’s speech as a senator to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his 2009 inauguration address.

Is this story true?

Community
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JonathanReez
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1 Answers1

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FactCheck.Org already investigated this claim.

Partly true. It's true that the president and first lady gave Queen Elizabeth II a video iPod when they visited Buckingham Palace in 2009. But there was more uploaded to the device than the president's 2009 inauguration speech and his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention when he was a state senator. ABC News' Jake Tapper reported that dozens of well-known musical show tunes were uploaded on the iPod given to the queen, as well as photos and video from the queen's visits to the United States in 1957 and 2007. There were also photos from the 2009 presidential inauguration. Tapper reported that the Obamas also gave the queen "a rare musical songbook signed by Richard Rodgers." The White House said the queen had requested the iPod, according to a report from Fox News' Major Garrett. While the queen reportedly already had an audio-only version of the iPod, she did not have one capable of playing video. The queen's gift to Obama? A signed photo of herself, and the Duke of Edinburgh, in a silver frame.

Oddthinking
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  • I don't know what the rules are for the Queen, but iirc, US Presidents aren't allowed to recieve expensive gifts (because of concerns of corruption) – user5341 Nov 17 '16 at 14:27
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    @user5341: Unless it [would be embarrassing to say no](http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/263401.pdf). I think more accurate is the President isn't allowed to *keep* such gifts. – Oddthinking Nov 17 '16 at 15:48
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    In terms of head-of-state gifts, neither an iPod nor a silver-framed photograph would qualify as "expensive," I'm pretty sure. – PoloHoleSet Nov 17 '16 at 15:56
  • @Oddthinking - "non-acceptance would cause embarassment". Priceless! – user5341 Nov 17 '16 at 16:25
  • I think this may have suffered link-rot already. (Or I am going geoblocked) The telegraph like goes to their front page for me, and the abc new link goes to a very short 1 sentence QA, without details at all. Also this is the cutest thing Obama got the queen a mix-tape. – Frames Catherine White Jan 24 '17 at 00:00