Posted by u/arturo182 14 hours ago
TIL that US presidents used to give out special presidential packs of cigarettes to guests boarding Air Force One, they were later changed to packs of presidential M&M's over health concerns
>Starting under President Kennedy, guests and members of the press who traveled on Air Force One were given packs of 20 cigarettes in a box marked with the presidential seal and the signature of the sitting president, along with a matchbook; it became a tradition that all guests on Air Force One would receive a souvenir of their trip. In 1988, at the behest of Nancy Reagan, smoking was banned on Air Force One and M&Ms replaced cigarettes as the traditional gift for guests using presidential facilities.A spokesman for the White House stated that the change was made because of health concerns around cigarettes, and that candy was more suitable as a souvenir. > >On President Donald Trump's first flight aboard Air Force One, unsigned boxes of M&M's were provided because the ones with Trump's signature were not yet available.In May 2017, presidential M&M's with President Trump's signature were released. It took a while to print those candy boxes for Pres Trump. Also, seems the politicians have a sweet tooth, there's also a candy desk >The **candy desk** has been a tradition of the United States Senate since 1968, whereby a senator who sits at a particular desk near a busy entrance keeps a drawer full of candy for members of the body. The current occupant of the candy desk is Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey.
Ya thunk Reagan would have given out jelly beans.
compromise with candy cigs
This guy international diplomacy's.
E: somebody help me out, diplomacy's or diplomacies?
[I have a pack of cigarettes from when my grandma flew on Air Force One with Gerald Ford.](https://imgur.com/cvJfx)
Lol high-tech there. Slide a card inside the plastic wrapper. Now it's official! Cool artifact to have though.
Surprised it wasn’t jelly beans since it was under Regan.
We could see through out his presidency he didn’t like chocolate.
I can't wait for 20 years from now when we've come full circle but it's presidential blunts. Welcome aboard air force one. Skibbity dibbity.
Shhhhh don’t steal my campaign platform
My husband has a pack of m&m’s from Clinton era.
Me too! I got mine from Air Force One. Where’d he get his?
My uncle was a secret service agent. In my aunt's house they have both presidential cigarettes and m&m packs. I have held both of these. Pretty cool. Also if you serve in the secret service and retire after years of service(not exactly sure of amount) you keep your badge and can even arrest people after your retired.
I know a few departments that have a reserve component made up of entirely retired cops so they can continue to carry a badge, gun, and arrest people.
Need some presidential carrot sticks now. Ooh, or a presidential apple. Instead of the little PLU stickers it has a white house logo and tiny tiny signature.
Presidential hotdog encased in resin.
But is eating a packet of cigarettes really unhealthier than a packet of M&Ms?
Hey man, please stop eating cigarettes
From one addiction to another
I wonder what the next replacement gift will be?
I have a pack of those M&Ms, from like 2004/5. I want to open them, but also dont want to open them.
Think of it this way, if you open them and eat them, there'll be forever a part of you that's AF1 M&Ms.
Think of it as a permanent upgrade to your real life character.
My mom dated someone who worked in the White House in the 90’s. Every time he would visit he would bring us a bunch of these. They were peanut M&Ms and the boxes were still cigarette box shaped.
I bet candy will soon be deemed too unhealthy and M&Ms will be replaced with presidential broccoli.
I think George H W Bush would like a word about that.
[Enjoy](https://youtu.be/FlzyIbmyM78)
I haven’t smoked in a year but I don’t think I could resist smoking a presidential cigarette
Why does that Wikipedia article call out Trump directly? Seems irrelevant since they don't call out any other presidents beyond major changes to the practice.
Same reason the top comment quoted that bit, so hot right now.
a presidential dildo would be most appropriate because they keep telling us to go fuck ourselves.
“For health reasons, here are some chocolate candies”
For the many years that I got these Presidentially M&Ms, I only got peanut M&Ms. Never questioned out loud why but I'm really not a fan of peanut M&Ms.
I'm surprised that they didn't change the cigarettes to Jelly Belly jellybeans, because the change occured under the Reagan administration and those jellybeans were his favorite candy. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/jelly-bellyr-jelly-beans-and-ronald-reagan
I’ve got one of these from Nixon. My wife’s grandfather went to school w/Nixon and the story goes on one of their reunions, Nixon brought them to AFO. So as a family heirloom I’ve got a pack, and a couple matchbooks on my wall. I can provide pics if anyone is interested.
Here is an ok photo of it on my wall:
https://i.imgur.com/B9SkrsJ.jpg
From L&M’s to M&M’s. Traded your tobacco for cacao Edit: This honestly didn’t go as well as I expected. I will now see myself to the door Edit: I’m back in the positive! HUZZAH!
Don't forget your presidential canned air!
And in 50 years people are going to be shocked that the president gave candy with vast amounts of sugar in it to guests.
My neighbor was a chef for Obama so we had/ maybe still have quite a few boxes of these. Cool to know they made a good decision changing from cigarettes' to m&m
Why did nancy ruin everything
I remember the girl across the street stole a pack of cigarettes from her older brother and we smoked them behind the school. They were George HW Bush cigarettes which I thought was really strange, but it all makes sense now
They did the same for Marine One, the presidential helicopter. I used to have (can’t find) a Ronald Reagan-signed jelly belly jar, and I still have a set of Ronald Reagan-signed Old Fashioned glasses with the presidential seal saying welcome aboard Marine One.
Soon they'll switch to presidential packs of celery because of health concerns.
Or bottled water... Though we know where plastics are going.
its funny cuz sugar is a pretty big killer too
They should just make shirts that say I got to ride on air force one, and all I got was this dumb t-shirt.
Switch those out for mary-jane
These are (or were) also at the Presidential box in the Kennedy Center. I have a box of peanut M&Ms just like these and a mini champagne bottle with the presidential seal from there.
I'm not super proud of it but I took a tour of the White House a few years back and got a pack of Trump signed Hershey Kisses.