Olivia Rodrigo: Joe Biden 'gave me a shoehorn'

Olivia Rodrigo
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Olivia Rodrigo came away from her White House visit with some presidential gifts — including one she found a bit strange.

The pop star visited the White House in July to help the Biden administration urge young people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she explained that President Biden "gave me a few gifts" while she was there. One of them was the pair of sunglasses the Sour singer was photographed wearing with Biden in the Oval Office.

In addition to that, though, Rodrigo told Kimmel, "He gave me some M&M's, and he also gave me a shoehorn, which was strange." Rodrigo assured a surprised Kimmel she was being serious and still has the shoehorn, which was emblazoned with a presidential seal, at her house. When the late night host asked if she had to "pretend to be interested" in shoehorns as not to be rude to the president, she noted she didn't actually realize it was one of the gifts at first.

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"I didn't see it when he gave it to me," Rodrigo said. "It was like in a bag, and I opened it up, and I was like, 'Oh, that's so cool!'"

Rodrigo said it was an "honor" to visit the White House, even though she was "so nervous to go" and scared she was going to "sneeze and break" something. Kimmel, though, seemed a bit flabbergasted to learn that Biden is "giving out shoehorns" to people, quipping, "If you ever thought Joe Biden was too old to be president, now we know he is."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.