April Fool’s Day was full of pranks and controversy this year for the Biden administration.
On April Fool’s day, First Lady Jill Biden pulled a prank. As a result, news stories and tweets were all buzzing about her trick and interesting outfit choice.
According to Forbes, on a flight back from California, after speaking at the United Farm Works and visiting a coronavirus vaccination site in Forty Acres, The First Lady disguised herself as a flight attendant. She wore the typical attire of a flight attendant on an Executive One Foxtrot with a black pants suit, black face mask and short black wig.
Wearing the name badge of “Jasmine,” she walked through the cabins containing Secret Service agents and her press pool while giving out Dove ice cream bars, according to USA Today. She returned five minutes later to reveal her identity.
The irony of it all is that even her workers didn’t recognize her, Forbes says. Jill Biden seemed quite joyful at the success of her prank as she had fooled not only the media but the Secret Service and her staff.
According to her 2019 memoir called “Where the Light Enters,” the First Lady has a history of pulling April Fool’s pranks. President Joe Biden said in 2014 that April Fool’s Day is a tradition for his wife’s family, and he wakes up each April 1 morning wondering what Jill will do that day.
In fact, during the Obama administration, Jill Biden hid in an overhead bin on an Air Force Two popping out and scaring anyone who happened to walk by.
“I’ve always believed you’ve got to steal the joyful moments when you can,” she wrote in her memoir.
According to Glamour, Natalie Biden, her granddaughter, revealed at the Democratic National Convention last summer just how much of a prankster her grandmother was.
“I would say she’s not your average grandmother. She’s a prankster, she’s very mischievous,” she said, adding, “When she goes on a run, sometimes she’ll find, like, a dead snake and she’ll pick it up and put it in a bag and she’ll use it to scare someone,” said Natalie Biden.
Jill Biden is not the only First Lady to have played an April Fool’s prank. For example, Barbara Bush wore a strawberry blonde wig to a Gridiron dinner on April 1, 1989. This was a spoof to poke fun at all the attention she was getting on her white hair and looks, UPI reported.
In 2013 when Barack Obama was president, he played a prank on the United States. The White House told everyone to watch a message from him. What happened next was that “Hail to the Chief” played, and 9-year-old Robby Novak, or the Kid President, rose behind the podium and told everyone they’d been pranked, according to NBC.
However, not everyone was impressed by her April Fool’s prank, or the outfit she wore off the plane. First Lady Biden emerged wearing an all-black outfit with a leather skirt, fishnet stockings, ankle booties and a blazer.
“Jill Biden would appreciate it if people stopped retweeting this picture of her trashy outfit,” said Terrence K. Williams.
“Not Jill Biden’s hot topic era,” said Steve Morris.
However, other people liked her outfit and humor. Jeff Rabinowitz said, “I love First Ladies with a sense of humor.”
Lucy King even stated that if you were okay with a President who poked fun at disabled people but found offense at the First Lady Jill Biden’s prank then you had a problem.
Regardless of where you stand in this argument, it is interesting to see how public figures interact with a pranksters’ holiday and how the political atmosphere around them often influences their pranks.