Barack Obama made the grave mistake of telling his staff he is scared of snowmen.

US President Barack Obama has been pranked by staff after recently admitting to a fear of snowmen.

“There’s a whole kind of Chucky element to them,” he told PEOPLE – referencing the horror film Child’s Play.

“They’re a little creepy.”

A photo posted by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on Dec 16, 2016 at 1:47pm PST

After First Lady Michelle Obama joked that one should be placed by the president’s bedside, one of his staffers decided to start moving snowmen around the White House.

“For the past three weeks, there have been four snowmen on display in the Rose Garden,” White House Photographer Pete Souza said on Instagram.

“We’ve been joking that we should move the snowmen a few feet closer to the Oval Office every day to see if anyone noticed.

“Then we realised the snowmen were too heavy to easily lift.

“But finally this morning before the president came to the office, some helpful staff – I won’t say who – moved all the snowmen so each one was peeking through a different window into the Oval.”

A photo posted by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on Dec 17, 2016 at 9:25am PST

The photographer said the president “enjoyed the prank”.