The furniture and artwork may be largely the same, but one ornament has apparently quickly disappeared from the White House Oval Office following the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
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.
President Biden has removed the Diet Coke button. When @ShippersUnbound and I interviewed Donald Trump in 2019, we 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. pic.twitter.com/rFzhPaHYjk
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) January 21, 2021
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.
President Biden has removed the Diet Coke button. When @ShippersUnbound and I interviewed Donald Trump in 2019, we 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. pic.twitter.com/rFzhPaHYjk
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) January 21, 2021
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.
Story cited here.
