How George H.W. Bush’s Air Force One Broccoli Prank Became a Lifelong Punchline

President George H. W. Bush is best remembered for his foreign policy — leading the United States through the end of the Cold War and overseeing the first Gulf War — but back at home, he navigated a lower-stakes conflict of his own making: the war against broccoli.

Historians trace Bush’s battle with the cruciferous vegetable back to a moment aboard Air Force One, when a flight attendant brought the president a serving of green florets.

“He sits back, he looks at the steward and he says, ‘You know, I’ve hated broccoli ever since I was a little boy. My mother made me eat broccoli, and now that I’m president of the United States, I’m not going to eat broccoli anymore,’ “ presidential journalist Kenneth Walsh recalled in the 2019 documentary The Secret History of Air Force One.

Bush declared that he no longer wanted to see, smell or exist near the vegetable. “So,” Walsh explained, “they banned broccoli from Air Force One.”

Not everyone got the memo about Bush’s hatred for broccoli, though, so when it slipped onto his Air Force One menu again, the president decided to have some fun while reminding the staff of his preference.

“One day, we were an hour out and the president’s doctor came up to me, extremely seriously, and said, ‘Howie, was there broccoli in that lasagna for lunch?’ ” Bush’s chief flight attendant, Howie Franklin, recalled in the doc. 

“I said, ‘Yes sir, there was,’ and he said, ‘Well, you know, the president’s allergic to broccoli,’ “ the former Air Force One staffer said. “That really hit me. I am supposed to know that stuff.”

Franklin recalled going to find the president, who was preparing to receive a shot from his doctor and “staggering” as Secret Service agents helped prop him up.

“I’m feeling terrible,” the flight attendant recalled. “My pager went off and my deputy said, ‘Chief, the pilot needs to see you in the pilot’s office.’ “

Petrified, Franklin went to the front of the plane, where the whole crew was gathered. “Colonel Jackson, our navigator, fine fella, I think he knew I was really high strung, and he gave me the thumbs up with a smile,” Franklin said, only then realizing that he had been tricked.

“They were all in on it,” he said with a laugh. “The entire crew and the president and the staff and the doctor, they were all in on the prank.”

Franklin revealed to WWAY TV in 2018 that while the crew learned to be careful with their vegetable choices, they knew Bush would always get excited for pig skins, Baby Ruth bars, Klondike bars and butter pecan ice cream.

Bush’s hatred of broccoli became a running joke throughout his presidency, with him frequently working a quip about the vegetable into political speeches.

In fact, through an analysis of Bush’s public statements while in office, Smart Politics reported that he mentioned broccoli 70 times during his presidency. This, in contrast to his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, who mentioned the vegetable just once in double the time.

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While stumping for Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Bill Price in 1990, Bush said he was supportive of the Republican, with one stipulation: “If they send me that bill to make these kids eat their broccoli, I will veto that legislation.”

Two years later, at a prayer breakfast in Houston, Bush remarked that breakfast-time speeches were his favorite, saying, “I figure it’s the one meal where broccoli is never served.”

At some point, Bush was asked if he had any worries about “losing the broccoli vote,” as major farm groups can hold serious political sway in rural states. But he stood firm.

“For the broccoli vote out there, [my wife] Barbara loves broccoli. She’s tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself,” he said. “So, she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in [from Washington].”

First lady Barbara Bush did just that, welcoming a delegation from the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association on the White House lawn in March 1990. They brought 10 tons of broccoli with them — which the president would later donate to local food banks — and the lobbying group’s leader at the time, George Dunlop, even presented the first lady with a bouquet made of the vegetable.

Barbara accepted the gift alongside her faithful dog, Millie.

“Millie and I thank you for the broccoli. We’ll eat it,” the first lady said. But as for her husband, she added, “If his own blessed mother can’t make him eat broccoli, I give up.”

As his term neared an end, President Bush’s opponents even capitalized on the broccoli saga, referencing his comments during the 1992 election.

While Bill Clinton and Al Gore campaigned against Bush, their wives, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, visited a farmer’s market during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, with a sign that read, “Let’s put broccoli in the White House again.”

The jokes about Bush and broccoli would follow him even to his own funeral.

His son, 43rd President George W. Bush, delivered a eulogy at the state funeral service on Dec. 5, 2018. In the speech, the younger Bush spoke of his father with reverence — calling him “the brightest of a thousand points of light — while also teasing him for his flaws.

“To us he was close to perfect. but not totally,” he said. “His short game was lousy. He wasn’t exactly Fred Astaire on the dance floor. The man couldn’t stomach vegetables, especially broccoli. And by the way, he passed these genetic defects along to us.”