Politics

Awkward Presidential Encounters

The strangest and most uncomfortable meetings in White House history. Reagan and Michael Jackson?

On Thursday night in Silicon Valley, President Obama dined with a dozen technology leaders, including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It may have been the most impressive presidential gathering of American innovators since Thomas Edison and Henry Ford visited Calvin Coolidge, but was it fun? Obama’s dining partners are not known as slick conversationalists, and some of them have pushed for a world that favors digital interactions over social ones.

It was a meeting that could’ve been awkward. (It was closed to the press, so we will never know for sure.) If it was uncomfortable, it wouldn’t be the first time a president has struggled through a high-profile but bizarre meeting. View a slide show of some of the strangest presidential encounters throughout history.

Click here to see a slide show of awkward presidential encounters.

Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.