Trump's Red Button Riddle: Controversial Diet Coke Button disappears from Oval Office’s Resolute Desk

The red button on Trump's desk when he was in the White House. Photo TWITTER

In the early days of the Donald Trump administration, reports surfaced that the 45th president used a red button atop a small wooden box to summon his caffeine fix.

“With the push of a red button placed on the Resolute Desk that presidents have used for decades, a White House butler soon arrived with a Coke for the president,” the AP wrote in a 2017 profile.

Later reports confirmed the box’s purpose but suggested the president was actually a Diet Coke man.

It appears getting rid of the so called “Diet Coke button” was part of President Joe Biden’s day-one agenda, as media images have surfaced of the 46th president doing business without the handy button or a can of Coke.

In his first 24 hours as president, Joe Biden expediently set about dismantling Donald Trump’s legacy: He rejoined the Paris climate accord and set the reversal ball rolling on some of his predecessor’s more damaging environmental policies. He halted construction on the border wall and reestablished DACA protections. He recommitted the United States to the World Health Organization. He also, apparently, removed a button in the Oval Office that Trump had used specifically to request Diet Coke deliveries, a premium feature that ensured unfettered access to cool and refreshing beverages on demand.

Social media users were quick to reiterate the point made by the Associated Press, that the button itself predated President Trump, and presumably has uses other than beverage delivery.

The button apparently received plenty of use over the last four years. According to a 2017 New York Times report, Trump would regularly consume as many as 12 diet cokes per day while doing business in the Oval Office.

It’s not entirely clear why Mr. Biden would have had such a magical button removed. According to a 2020 Washington Post examination of his food habits, then-candidate Biden himself requested a pantry stocked with Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

President Joe Biden only took office Wednesday, but he's already made some changes in the Oval Office, and the significance of one of them is quite clear: He's less fond of soda than his predecessor.

Another change Biden has made to his Oval Office: The décor now includes a picture of his late son, Beau Biden, who died in 2015 at age 46 of brain cancer. The image, accompanied by other family photos including one of first lady Jill Biden, stands just behind the Resolute Desk.

While Biden might not share the same passion for soft drinks, he does have his own edible vice, ice cream. In August, his grandchildren revealed that their grandfather is "always eating ice cream, usually vanilla," in a video released for the Democratic National Convention.

Joe Biden at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House. Earlier in the day he was sworn In as 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021, in Washington, DC.

In fact, on Thursday, the day after the inauguration, an ice cream brand that Biden has a fondness for launched a new flavor in his honor. According to the company, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Biden has been a frequent visitor of its shops since 2012, and its founder, Jeni Britton Bauer, got to know his go-to order, a double scoop of chocolate chip ice cream on a waffle cone.

The Biden-inspired confection is called White House Chocolate Chip. With a name like that, perhaps the 46th commander-in-chief will find a use for the button after all.

According to The Hill, former White House staffer Cliff Sims wrote in his book, Team of Vipers, that Trump used the nuclear-button joke a lot. Sims reportedly said that Trump — who is said to consume as many as 12 Diet Cokes daily — would lead visitors to believe his cola bell had far more sinister capabilities: “Out of nowhere, he’d suddenly press the button,” Sims notes in the book. “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.”

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