The Conversation (0)
Isobel van Hagen
Jan 22, 2021
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images/JONATHAN ERNST/Reuters
As president Joe Biden took office earlier this week, the Oval Office got a revamp: new portraits and busts, photographs of his family. The oak ‘Resolute desk’ stayed, of course, although one remnant of the Trump White House did not make the cut.
Biden apparently has ditched a little red button that Trump used to summon a White House butler who would serve him Diet Coke.
Trump, known to be Diet Coke-lover, reportedly drank around 12 of the sodas a day during his presidency. Associated Pressreporter Julie Pace wrote in 2017 that when interviewing the 45th president, Trump had shown her the button and received a “single glass of Diet Coke on a silver tray” upon pressing it.
In 2019, former White House aide Chris Sims also wrote about the button in his 2019 book Team of Vipers. Sims said that Trump would prank visitors by hitting the button and suggesting it was related to the nuclear weapons arsenal. Hilarious!
President Biden has removed the Diet Coke button. When @ShippersUnbound and I interviewed Donald Trump in 2019, we… https://t.co/d1Qdqa1Eqo— Tom Newton Dunn (@Tom Newton Dunn) 1611244691
Times Radio chief political commentator Tom Newton Dunn tweeted the news of the now-removed fixture on Thursday, showing two photographs of the Trump and Biden Oval Offices desks side by side.
I can't believe there was a Diet Coke button.— David Gura (@David Gura) 1611256025
The tweet immediately went viral, with many commenters in disbelief, so much so that writer Elizabeth May responded: “So many people are asking if this is a joke, and I regret to inform you all it is not.”
I would've paid so much money to get to be in the room for the conversation that I imagine went like: BIDEN: ok wh… https://t.co/kEItcSlIsK— Emmy Bengtson (@Emmy Bengtson) 1611252703
“I would've paid so much money to get to be in the room for the conversation that I imagine went like,” Emmy Bengtson tweeted, acknowledging the absurdity of the Diet Coke-summoner.
Biden should've kept this but instead of summoning a Diet Coke the button would call a random Trump family member a… https://t.co/8lkNzoGfiy— shauna (@shauna) 1611258522
Good on Biden for replacing the Diet Coke button with a Freestyle https://t.co/PcjFlGcO1P https://t.co/cqkvUjHL4I— Alex Zalben (@Alex Zalben) 1611254628
Others were actually drawn to the allure of a Diet Coke button: as Emily Nussbaum wrote, “I very much want a Diet Coke button, it's the only part of being President that seems appealing.”
would like to go on record as pro diet coke button— Charlie Warzel (@Charlie Warzel) 1611256344
Likely Biden takes his job too seriously to have Diet Cokes brought to him on a platter through the day, even though he is a fan of soda himself. Although, as the Washington Postreported, he prefers Coke Zero.
More: Why Trump's exit speech is another example of the lengths he'll go for pride
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