Sorry, America: Obama Is Probably Done With Selfies Forever

Selfies have caused Obama nothing but trouble, and now the White House is considering making snaps with the president strictly off-limits.

That’s according to the New York Daily News, and you can thank Samsung and David Ortiz. The baseball player recently visited the White House and got the prez to pose for a quick pic. It went viral, of course. But it turns out that, like Ellen Degeneres at the Oscars, Ortiz had just signed a sponsorship deal with Samsung, which makes this look sketchy rather than cute.

The White House does not appreciate Obama being manipulated into a promotional stunt, and they are pissed:

“Maybe this will be the end of all selfies,” White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer said about the incident Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “(Obama) obviously didn’t know anything about Samsung’s connection to this.”

“Someone who uses the President’s likeness to promote a product… that’s a problem with the White House,” Pfeiffer added. “We’ve had conversations with Samsung about this and have expressed our concerns.”

Rude, Samsung. Rude. And after the hullabaloo over the photo at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, you can’t blame the White House for saying no more selfies. America abused its presidential selfie privileges, and knowing none of us normals will ever get our own snap with Obama is the price we all pay.

Update: White House press secretary Jay Carney says (via BuzzFeed) they were just joshing with us, and assured America that there will be no executive order formally banning selfies with the president. Nonetheless, I will personally bet dollars to donuts that Obama is now #teamnoselfiesever, and he will not be cooperating with anyone’s cutesy pics any time soon. Unless it’s the pope, a known selfie taker who is nonetheless probably not a secret agent of Samsung.