Controversies

Obama’s ‘Latte’ Salute Managed to Offend a Lot of People Who Probably Disliked Him Already

That better not be a pumpkin spice latte.
That better not be a pumpkin spice latte. Photo: whitehouse/Instagram

President Obama saluted two Marines while holding a lidded coffee cup, like the kind you get at Starbucks, just after landing in New York yesterday to deliver a speech on climate change at the U.N. Making things worse, the exchange was posted on the White House’s Instagram account, where it blew up immediately.

Of course, we’re sure the president regrets the botched salute much in the same way Bush wished he could take back the salute he mangled while carrying his dog off Air Force One in 2006. And perhaps this says more about America’s hot beverage preferences than it does about the president himself: Some have speculated the cup contained a fanciful latte, others contend it was just coffee; yet others say that whatever it was, paper cups are awful for the environment. Scroll through the thousands of comments welling up beneath the Instagram post and you’ll inevitably end up with a voluminous think-piece on “Latte” states versus “Drip” states that no one wants to read. Besides, everybody knows the president prefers tea, anyhow.

Related: The White House Is Protecting Obama’s Coffee Preference Like a State Secret
[Instagram]

Obama’s ‘Latte’ Salute Managed to Offend a Lot of People Who