Rodríguez still had to contend with the perception that although he held the title of president, he was not the man in charge, which was seen to be Calles, the so-called "Jefe Máximo de later Revolución". Not only Calles was touted in the press in the US as the "Strong Man of Mexico", but in March 1934, US President Franklin Roosevelt wrote Calles a letter "congratulating him on the 'peace and the growing prosperity of Mexico,'" which was to be delivered at a luncheon that Calles was hosting for Josephus Daniels, the new US ambassador to Mexico. Rodríguez learned of the luncheon at Calles's Cuernavaca home to which many Mexican and foreign dignitaries had already been invited by José Manuel Puig Casauranc. Rodríguez was adamant for the lunch to be cancelled since Calles was "simply a private citizen." It was not the prerogative of an ex-president to host such an event. Guests were disinvited on the pretext that Calles had taken ill. "The President maintained that if any such luncheon were to be given it should be given by him and that if a message should come from President Roosevelt it should come to the President of Mexico." The Roosevelt letter to Calles was delivered, but Calles replied that he was not a part of the President's government although greatly esteemed him. The US ambassador months later made another misstep by calling Calles "the strong man of Mexico" in an interview with the Mexican newspaper "El Nacional". That made Daniels become called out by Rodríguez, and the ambassador subsequently claimed that he had been misquoted. Daniels wrote in his memoirs that he, Calles, and Puig Casauranc "knew that the man in Chapultepec Castle official presidential residence was the President of Mexico."