Elvis Presley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday, 41 years after his death.

While it may come as a surprise that no president included the King on his list of honorees until today, Donald Trump was the one to finally extend the distinction – the highest civilian honour – to the cultural icon.

The Heartbreak Hotel singer, who would be 83 years old today, was relatively discreet with his political opinions, once describing himself as an "entertainer" above all.

But some of Presley's actions – such as his 1970 visit with Republican President Richard Nixon, which he initiated – suggest he leaned towards the right.

During a 1972 interview at Madison Square Garden, a reporter asked the musician, who was drafted in 1957 and served in the US Army from 1958 to 1960: "Mr Presley, as you've mentioned your time in the service, what is your opinion of war protesters and would you today refuse to be drafted?"

Presley responded: "Honey, I'd just sooner keep my own personal views about that to myself, 'cause I'm just an entertainer and I'd rather not say."

In the same interview, he said he didn't have any aspirations "in politics or anything of that nature".

Another reporter asked: "Mr Presley, what do you think about Women's Liberation?"

After cracking a joke, Presley once again dodged the question, replying: "On social comments like this, I'd just sooner not make a comment."

Trump – who obtained five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, including one for a foot problem – has expressed respect for the military as part of his rhetoric, though he has also earned backlash after criticising late veteran Senator John McCain for being captured in Vietnam.

As for women's rights, the president (who once bragged about being able to "grab" women "by the p****" isn't a known defender of the cause and has considered the possibility of leaving abortion legislation up to individual states, rather than federal law.

President Richard Nixon meets with Elvis Presley 21 December, 1970 at the White House. (Photo by National Archives)

The most political moment of the King's career was probably his meeting with Nixon on 21 December 1970.

He personally showed up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to deliver a letter he had written to the president. In the missive, Presley said he wanted to give Nixon a gift and expressed interest in qualifying as a federal agent in the war on drugs, according to an online exhibit kept by the National Archives.

Presley, who thought he was a good candidate to do drug prevention due to his ability to reach people of all ages, ended up meeting Nixon later that same day and received a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

He endeared himself to Nixon Aide Egil Krogh so much that Krogh later lamented the fact that there was never an opportunity to hire Presley to "work with the White House staff".

"I liked him a lot," Krogh said of Presley.

Following Nixon's death, the New York Times included more details about Presley's White House visit in a story questioning the Republican president's legacy.

Top Ten Musician Biopics Show all 10 1 /10 Top Ten Musician Biopics Top Ten Musician Biopics 10. I'm Not There (2007) Todd Haynes followed his glam rock pseudo-biopic Velvet Goldmine (1998) with this inventive exploration of the many sides of Bob Dylan. Six actors – Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Ben Whishaw among them – portrayed Dylan at different stages of his career as part of an appropriately freewheelin’ approach to narrative. Rex Features Top Ten Musician Biopics 9. The Doors (1991) To convince director Oliver Stone to give him the part of Jim Morrison, Val Kilmer undertook hours of extensive research into his hero, learning 50 songs to mimic his singing voice. When the surviving members of the Doors assembled to hear a recording of Kilmer, none could tell which was the impersonation and which the real Morrison. The Doors was not loved by all but the great Kyle MacLachlan and Meg Ryan were memorable in supporting roles as keyboardist Ray Manzarek and Morrison's girlfriend Pamela Courson respectively. Rex Features Top Ten Musician Biopics 8. Sid & Nancy (1986) Gary Oldman was a dead-ringer for the late Sex Pistols guitarist Sid Vicious in director Alex Cox’s appropriately grotty account of the punk star’s pointless death from heroin following the overdose of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) in New York’s Hotel Chelsea. Bandmate Johnny Rotten was predictably dismissive of the project but understandably annoyed that Joe Strummer of The Clash had been consulted but not him. Rex Features Top Ten Musician Biopics 7. Get on Up (2014) Like Rami Malek, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman faced a seemingly impossible task in portraying soul superstar James Brown, “Mr Dynamite” himself. He acquitted himself well, however, in a film that largely conformed to genre formula but offered strength in depth with Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Lennie James and Octavia Spencer among the supporting cast. Rex Features Top Ten Musician Biopics 6. What’s Love Got to Do with It? (1993) Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne were superbly matched as Tina and Ike Turner in Brian Gibson’s unflinching account of their rise to fame and abusive marriage. Adapted from Tina’s memoir I, Tina, the movie follows Ike’s violent attempts to dominate her before a conversion to Buddhism gives the soul star the strength to break free and go it alone. Rex Features Top Ten Musician Biopics 5. Straight Outta Compton (2015) Depicting the rise of game-changing LA rappers NWA in the late 1980s, Straight Outta Compton appeared in 2015 and was a smash hit, making $200m (£153m) at the box office on a $50m (£38m) budget. While F Gary Gray's film lost its way in its second half, becoming bogged down in contract disputes, overall it did a superb job of capturing the vitality and righteous anger of the album of the same name. O'Shea Jackson Jr's performance as his own real-life father, Ice Cube, was a revelation. Universal Pictures Top Ten Musician Biopics 4. Ray (2004) Jamie Foxx was ideally cast as Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford’s telling of the life of the blind soul star, charting his rise from poverty in rural Florida to worldwide acclaim. A sample of Foxx singing “I Got a Woman” provided the unlikely basis for Kanye West’s huge hit “Gold Digger” in 2005. 2004 Universal Studios Top Ten Musician Biopics 3. Walk the Line (2005) James Mangold’s film, in which Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon excelled as Johnny Cash and June Carter, was a highly accomplished period piece and swept up its fair share of awards. Admittedly conventional - containing at least three eureka moments in which the leads are inspired to write their best known songs - this is solid and fair-minded stuff. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Top Ten Musician Biopics 2. La Vie en Rose (2007) Marion Cotillard became an international star and was named Best Actress at the Oscars for her incredibly emotional turn as tragic French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Olivier Dahan’s 2007 film. Covering the central events of her life from childhood to middle age, the biopic captured the defiant, uncompromising character of its subject, as expressed by her signature song “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”. Icon Film Distribution Top Ten Musician Biopics 1. Control (2007) The directorial debut of Anton Corbijn, who had photographed Joy Division in their prime, Control married the British kitchen sink realism of the 1960s with the doom-laden atmosphere of Ingmar Bergman to appropriately eerie effect. Sam Riley was mesmeric as Ian Curtis, a jittery, haunted presence in a film that could not have been more different from Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People (2002), covering some of the same territory. Rex Features

During the meeting, Presley showed Nixon some of his law enforcement paraphernalia, "including badges from police departments in California, Colorado and Tennessee", the newspaper noted.

There have been some comparisons between Trump and Nixon; The Commercial Appeal, a local Memphis newspaper, likened Nixon's encounter with Presley to Trump's visit with Kanye West.

Trump and Nixon even partied together on one occasion in 1989, as previously reported by the New York Times.

Some, however, have argued that the two presidents aren't so similar, including Nixon's own former White House Counsel John Dean.

"Trump’s is making the long nightmare of Nixon’s Watergate seem like a brief idyllic daydream,' Dean tweeted earlier this month.

"History will treat Nixon’s moral failures as relatively less troubling than Trump’s sustained and growing decadence, deviousness and self-delusive behaviour. Nixon=corrupt; Trump=evil."

Presley's meeting with Trump also brought to the surface the musician's fervent patriotism – and apparent dislike of the Beatles.

"Presley indicated that he thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit," the publication wrote.

"He said that the Beatles came to this country, made their money, and then returned to England where they promoted an anti-American theme."

Trump hasn't shied away from publicly criticising celebrities who have ruffled his feathers.

In recent years, he has fuelled feuds with Rosie O'Donnell, Anna Wintour, Stephen Curry, Meryl Streep, Chrissy Teigen, and Michael Moore.

The president has also referred to Democrats as "un-American", not unlike Presley did with the Beatles.

While the entertainment industry is often considered to be a predominantly liberal world, Presley – with his gusto for Nixon, his anti-drugs stance (which preceded his own battle with substance abuse), and his enthusiasm for law enforcement – appears to have held positions in contrast with most progressive ideals.

Given the musician's reluctance to take a strong political stance, it doesn't seem like not too much of a stretch to say he would likely have collected his medal from Trump without too much fuss.