Things didn’t go so smoothly for President Barack Obama when he offered a toast to England’s Queen Elizabeth at the Buckingham Palace Tuesday. He ended up being toast himself when he talked over the British national anthem during his salute to the queen.
As Obama finished his dinner remarks, he lifted his glass to honor the queen. “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand with me and raise your glasses as I propose a toast to her majesty, the queen,” the president said.
That’s when things started going awry. Guests indeed stood up, and the band started to play the anthem, “God Save the Queen.”
But Obama kept speaking. When the president lifted his glass at the end, no one else in the camera’s view matched him, and the queen appeared to give him a tense smile and looked forward.
Story continues below video.
Obama awkwardly placed his glass on the table until the anthem ended, and then the queen and others lifted their glasses to the toast.
A BBC commentator called it “a minor mishap,” but the queen’s reaction and her delaying her salute to the toast appeared to be her way of giving the president a lesson in toasting etiquette.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.