The most ridiculous gifts to world leaders: discs, carpet and grasshopper

During the meeting, the leaders of the DPRK and the United States discussed that Trump called his colleague “rocket man,” referring both to the military ambitions of the North Korean leader and to Elton John’s song of the same name, “Rocket man.” It turned out that Kim Jong-un had never heard this song. As a result, Trump decided to give him the disk so that he could fill the gap. Edition Air force collected a list of the most ridiculous gifts to world leaders.

Photo: Facebook The White House

Disc is the best gift

Kim Jong-un is not the first head of state who received a disc as a gift. In 2009, Barack Obama, being the president of the United States, presented a collection of DVDs with his favorite American films to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

It seems that this gift was quite difficult for the British to appreciate. Not only was it a response to a much more valuable gift from the British side, but it also turned out to be completely useless - the United Kingdom has different regional DVD restrictions, and films from Obama's discs were simply not played there.

Carpet-portrait

In August, 1997, the then President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, presented Bill and Hillary Clintons with a carpet with their portraits. The faces of the President and the First Lady of the United States on the carpet were placed inside a large heart.

The gift was created by the famous Azerbaijani artist Kamil Aliyev. “I wanted to represent their [the Clintons’] lives as part of a single beating heart,” the artist explained of his design.

Overload, reboot - what's the difference?

Hillary Clinton also remembered the world with her gift, however, no matter how hard the American side tried, it did not turn out to be particularly emotional.

When Clinton visited Moscow in 2009, while serving as US Secretary of State, she presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a gift symbolizing a new—that is, friendly—round of relations between their countries.

The gift was a red button with the inscription reset on it - an invitation to forget the grievances of the Cold War and start with a clean slate. However, it turned out that the Americans made a mistake in translating the word reset, and as a result, the button read “overload” instead of reboot.

Queen's personal grasshopper

When, in 2002, the British Queen Elizabeth II for the first time showed gifts that she had been given during the reign, the public discovered something unexpected.

Among the jewels, traditional products of different nations and works of art in Buckingham Palace one could see a huge device for cooling wine, made of steel and Sevres porcelain in the form of a grasshopper.

The beneficial “insect” was presented to the Queen in 1972 by then French President Georges Pompidou.

Photo: Twiitter @RoyaleVision

Just a national costume

Elizabeth II's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, also has an amazing thing in his storerooms - it was donated by one of the tribes of the Republic of Vanuatu.

Despite the fact that Prince Philip has never been there, some residents of the Pacific island of Tanna (part of the republic) consider him a deity and once gave him a gift. Namely, a straw “case” for the penis.

Nothing unusual for the residents of Tanna - this is the only item of clothing that local men wear.

Battlefield as a sign of friendship

In 2012, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife presented a tennis table to the spouses Barack and Michelle Obama. The choice of the gift was explained by the fact that during one of his previous visits to London, Obama, playing a pair with Cameron against students at a local college, suffered a major defeat.

Not every head of state would have been delighted with such a gift.

It is worth recalling the scene from Shakespeare's historical drama Henry V, where the French present the young English king with a tennis ball as a symbolic gift. Henry V immediately guesses the message - the French are hinting that he is too young and it is better for him to play games and not get involved in politics. The king tells the French ambassadors that he will turn tennis balls into cannonballs and decides to invade France.

In the case of Obama and Cameron, everything ended very well.

“I know America doesn’t like to lose, so I’m trying to make amends with this gift,” Cameron explained at the time. Obama immediately invited him to try out the gift in action.

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