President Obama Had A Run-In With A Rodent At Buckingham Palace

When President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama  stayed at Buckingham Palace during a state visit in 2011, the couple had a glamorous experience, eating off of gold plates and admiring some of Queen Elizabeth ’s “bling .”

Everything sounds as fancy as you’d expect. That is, until the president ran into a little rodent problem. 

In an excerpt from a new book by Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, shared with People , Rhodes writes about the moment a butler walked into the president’s room and delivered some bad news. It happened just as Michelle was going to sleep in another room, the story says. 

“Mr. President, pardon me. There’s a mouse,” the butler told Obama, according to Rhodes’ book, The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House .

“Don’t tell the first lady,” Obama answered.

The butler added, “We’ll try to catch it, sir.” 

“Just don’t tell the first lady,” the president said once again. 

No word on if Michelle ever found out about the mouse, as she never mentioned it in her past stories about her Buckingham Palace sleepover.

“The [royals] hosted us for the state dinner. When you’re the guest country you stay at Buckingham Palace,” the former first lady said on “The Late Show” in 2016. “I do remember ordering french fries at the palace, they were good. They were some good fries.”