President Biden has made some changes in the Oval Office—including the removal of a red button his predecessor enjoyed showing off to visitors. Times Radio correspondent Tom Newton-Dunn tweeted Thursday that Donald Trump's "Diet Coke button" no longer sits on the Resolute Desk, NBC Philadelphia reports. He said that when he and another journalist interviewed Trump in 2019, they "became fascinated by what the little red button did. Eventually Trump pressed it, and a butler swiftly brought in a Diet Coke on a silver platter. It's gone now." The Hill reports that in his book Team of Vipers, former White House aide Cliff Sims said Trump, who reportedly drank a dozen Diet Cokes a day, sometimes used the red button to prank guests who suspected it could be used to order a nuclear launch.
"Out of nowhere, he’d suddenly press the button," Sims wrote. "Not sure what to do, guests would look at one another with raised eyebrows. Moments later, a steward would enter the room carrying a glass filled with Diet Coke on a silver platter, and Trump would burst out laughing." The button, in a wooden box with a presidential seal, has been around for decades and Trump isn't the first president to use it for beverage service. Barack Obama used it to order tea, the Huffington Post reported in 2017. Richard Branson wrote in autobiography Finding My Virginity that he had lunch with Obama in the Oval Office and "as we stood up to leave I noticed the red buttons on his desk. Obama saw me looking at them. He said, 'They used to be there for emergencies, but now I use them for ordering tea for my guests.'" (Biden has added a bust of Cesar Chavez.)
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