Trump visits Graceland, asks if he could 'take' Elvis in a fight

MEMPHIS, TENNESSE: President Donald Trump visited Graceland in Memphis and jokingly asked if he could have beaten Elvis Presley in a fight. He was in town for a Memphis Safe Task Force meeting and became only the second sitting president to tour the famous home, after George W Bush in 2006. Graceland is the second most visited house in the US.

Trump muses about fighting Elvis during Graceland tour

During his visit to Graceland, Trump spent time in the famous 'Jungle Room' and wondered if he could have beaten Elvis Presley in a fight. 

Trump toured the estate with a guide, viewing highlights such as Elvis’s final Grammy and the belt he earned for breaking Las Vegas attendance records.

According to the tour guide, “Elvis had two eighth-grade black belts and karate one was in Kenpo, and that's what this was he really good.”

“Was he really good?” Trump asked. When told he was, Trump replied, “Could I have taken him in a fight?”

Moments earlier, Trump signed a replica of one of Elvis’s guitars and quipped that his White House predecessor, Joe Biden, “couldn’t do that.” He admired Elvis’s gold-plated bedside phone, saying he’d “like to hear some of those conversations,” and praised the musician’s songs, calling 'Hurt' a favorite and adding, “He did nothing bad. He’s got so many, there’s very few I don’t like.”

“I’m a big fan of Elvis. Who isn’t?” he said. In the Jungle Room, known for its carpeted ceiling that improved recording acoustics, Trump marveled, “He was way before his time…carpet on the ceiling.”

Trump says he never met Elvis Presley

At a recent roundtable, President Trump discussed how, when his Memphis Safe Task Force anti-crime plan was first proposed, he thought about Memphis as the home of Elvis Presley.

 He said he loved Elvis but never met him. “I met Sinatra. I knew all of them. I never met Elvis,” Trump said. “Sometimes I feel I should tell little fibs that I knew him ... I love Elvis, but I never met him. But I'm going to go see Graceland after this."

Trump was still a relatively unknown real estate developer when Elvis was near the end of his life. He has compared himself to Presley, whom fans call 'The King.'

Last year, he posted a side-by-side photo of himself and Elvis on Truth Social without comment. In 2024, he shared the same photo again and asked followers, “People have been saying Elvis and I look alike. What do you think?”

Elvis, who died in 1977, once arranged to meet a former president by showing up at the White House gate in December 1970.