Everyone can do it thanks to the friendly Secret Service:

Harvey and Paula Darden, from Hogansville, Georgia, had mistakenly arrived a day early for a White House tour arranged through their Republican Congresswoman.

They presented themselves at a White House security booth on the south side of Lafayette Square on the morning of November 11 and were asked to wait while their names were checked by Secret Service staff.

After a few minutes the Dardens were told: “You are cleared to come in.” They were then escorted to the East Room where 200 veterans and their families were helping themselves to a breakfast buffet. Minutes later they were having breakfast with the President.

Here’s a useful historical guide:

How to gatecrash

Look the part In her glittering sari, Michaele Salahi looked like a glamorous guest at a state event for the visiting Indian Prime Minister. At the other end of the scale, in 1987 Christian K. Hughes drove straight in because an officer assumed that he was a deliveryman

Play the religious card George C. Weaver, a Californian clergyman, met six presidents. He gatecrashed a prayer breakfast in 1991 attended by George Bush Sr, and Bill Clinton’s inaugural luncheon in 1997

Bring the family In 1982 James Douglas Imes, his wife and two sons drove to the White House in a minivan, hooted their horn and were let through. They got as far as the Oval Office entrance

Tag on to an unsuspecting group In 1994, Stephan O. Winick, a celebrity-chaser, joined the entourage of the actor Harrison Ford in a lift as the group was escorted to meet Clinton at a hotel in Los Angeles

Do your research and don’t give up One third of presidential gatecrashers had checked the lie of the land. Four in ten were known to the authorities