--- title: George W. Bush Recalls Disastrous First Date With Tricia Nixon description: Klutziness, among other things, spoiled George W. Bush's first date with President Richard Nixon's daughter canonical: https://time.com/3578546/george-w-bush-tricia-nixon-date/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-11T17:44:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:21:53.471Z article:section: Politics og:title: George W. Bush Recalls Disastrous First Date With Tricia Nixon og:description: Klutziness, among other things, spoiled George W. Bush's first date with President Richard Nixon's daughter og:url: https://time.com/3578546/george-w-bush-tricia-nixon-date/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc744de6d0041e50c/6987682a428a9e167dcc550d/103214001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2999 og:image:height: 1687 og:image:alt: Presidential Escort og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: George W. Bush Recalls Disastrous First Date With Tricia Nixon twitter:description: Klutziness, among other things, spoiled George W. Bush's first date with President Richard Nixon's daughter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc744de6d0041e50c/6987682a428a9e167dcc550d/103214001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # George W. Bush Once Dated Nixon's Daughter, And It Did Not Go Well > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Nov 11, 2014 5:44 PM UTC  Tricia Nixon on her way to the Rose Garden with her father, President Richard Nixon, at her White House wedding. Tricia Nixon on her way to the Rose Garden with her father, President Richard Nixon, at her White House wedding.Paul Demaria—NY Daily News / Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Nov 11, 2014 5:44 PM UTC George W. Bush went on a disastrous first date with the daughter of President Richard Nixon in the late 1960s, according to new details divulged by the former president in a memoir about his father. George H W Bush—then a Texas congressman—arranged for his 22-year-old son, who was then a pilot in the National Guard, to meet Tricia Nixon at a gala in honor of the Apollo 8 spaceflight crew. It all went downhill from there, the _Telegraph_ [reports](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/11223230/George-W-Bushs-disastrous-date-with-President-Richard-Nixons-daughter.html). “During dinner, I reached for some butter, knocked over a glass, and watched in horror as the stain of red wine crept across the table,” Bush writes. “Then I fired up a cigarette, prompting a polite suggestion from Tricia that I not smoke.” The date came to an abrupt end, Bush writes, when Nixon asked to be taken back to the White House “immediately after dinner,” a drive he remembered with a twinge of embarrassment more than thirty years later, when he returned to the White House as the nation’s 43rd president. \[[_Telegrap_ _h_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/11223230/George-W-Bushs-disastrous-date-with-President-Richard-Nixons-daughter.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3578546/george-w-bush-tricia-nixon-date/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3578546/george-w-bush-tricia-nixon-date/"},"headline":"George W. 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