Here are your super chill summer photos of U.S. presidents eating barbecue

Chowing down with the grillers-in-chief

President Ford and his GOP vice-presidential candidate, US Senator Robert Dole, eat hot dogs at a cookout in Dole’s hometown of Russell, Kansas. (Bettmann/Getty)

Nothing says summer like barbecue. Nothing. And Presidents? So American. They are ours—we invented the job. You mighta heard some jabber about meat being bad for the environment. Water supplies, somebody named Okja. Whatever. If coal-grilled baby backs were good enough for LBJ, they’re aye okay in my book.

Presidents, like all people, enjoy getting together with friends to grill up every now and again. It’s a tradition, and not just during election cycles. And never as a photo op to look more American or manly to the voters. Legend has it George Bush kept a Hibachi outside the oval where he used to grill foot-longs for his guests. That’s hospitality American style.

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice-President Elect Hubert Humphrey enjoy barbecue spareribs at a victory celebration at LBJ’s Ranch in 1964. (Bettmann/Getty)
Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan holds a beer as he flips hot dogs and chats with voters in suburban Detroit in 1980. (Bettmann/Getty)
President George W. Bush holds a slice of roasted wild boar at a barbecue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2006. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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