‘Star Wars’ Characters In The White House — Stormtroopers And R2-D2 Arrive For Special Screening For Military Families


The characters from Star Wars paid a visit to the White House. The trustworthy robot, R2-D2, was accompanied by a few Stormtroopers.

Stromtroopers set foot in the White House on Friday. They marched inside the Presidential building not with the intention of an invasion, but to treat a bunch of military families to a special screening of the latest Star Wars movie. The soldiers of the “Dark Side” were accompanied by the most iconic droid, R2-D2, as they met and greeted those assembled in the White House. Interestingly, it was this cute robot that was ceremoniously welcomed through the gates, which was flanked on either side by Stormtroopers. First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted the small, but rather grand, entry of R2-D2.

President Barack Obama jokingly began his year-end press conference by informing assembled reporters that their meeting won’t be the most important event that day, reported ABC News.

“Good afternoon everybody. Clearly, this is not the most important thing that’s taking place in the White House today. There’s a screening of ‘Star Wars’ for Gold Star families and children coming up. So I’ll try to be relatively succinct.”

Later, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest appeared. He was flanked by a couple of Stormtroopers and, of course, R2-D2. The screening was specially scheduled for Gold Star families. Family members who have lost relatives to combat- or service-related injuries are termed as Gold Star families.

Earnest posed with for pictures with R2-D2 and two Stormtroopers in the press briefing room. Later the adorable, but multi-functional, R2-D2 interacted with reporters in his trademark language of beeps and even entertained them with by playing the Star Wars theme song and some patriotic tunes.

The president evidently appeared quite excited about the screening of the latest Star Wars film as he quickly wrapped up his press conference on Friday morning within an hour with the words.

“OK, everybody, I’ve got to get to Star Wars. Thank you.”

It was after Obama made his hasty exit like an overeager fan, it became Earnest’s responsibility to conclude the briefing.

According to a pool report — which referred to the incident as “some deep-level sponsored content” — the characters were there for the Gold Star families’ children, reported Yahoo. The pool report added that the event was confirmation that the White House had sided with the Dark Side of the Force. “This now clears up which side of the Force the administration is on,” mentioned the report.

Incidentally, the same indications were given by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who had sent out a press release that compared Obama’s team to the evil empire of the “Star Wars” films. “The Force,” it wrote, was strong with former Speaker John A. Boehner, reported the Los Angeles Times.

There were other not so subtle hints that Star Wars fever had gripped the White House. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee posted a fundraising plea. The theme of the fundraising plea was clearly Star Wars inspired, as was amply evident from the title. The plea was dubbed “Senate Wars.” Additionally, the stylizied text appeared as the slow upwards crawl from the movie franchise. The post expectedly criticized Republican policies, but chose to begin with the words, “It is an uncertain time in our galaxy.”

It was First Lady Michelle Obama, who played the gracious host to the event and appeared equally enthused about the special screening. She sent out numerous tweets about the occasion and had a great time with R2-D2.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been doing very well, thanks largely to the many generations of diehard fans. Within a few short days, the sci-fi movie has grossed more than $250 million globally.

[Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images]

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