Trump to Reinstate Famed 'Diet Coke Button' in the Oval Office
President-elect Donald Trump plans to reinstate his infamous red Diet Coke button in the Oval Office upon his return to the White House next month.
The permanent, nonpolitical staff of butlers, maids, housekeepers, and chefs who run the executive mansion are planning to welcome the Trumps back to the White House and rearrange the furniture to their liking, even down to details like the Diet Coke button which Trump kept on his desk, according to a Thursday report from the U.K. Daily Mail.
Trump would press the button on the Resolute Desk when he wanted Diet Coke, which is his preferred drink.
A staff member would then bring Trump a glass of the soda on a silver tray. In his first term, that task was managed by his personal valet, Walt Nauta.
Some guests in the Oval Office have watched in shock as Trump pressed the red button, only to realize in relief that the button merely called for a beverage.
Tom Newton Dunn, a journalist for The Times, a British daily newspaper, recalled in one November article that he was once one of those shocked guests when he had a chance to interview Trump alongside a colleague in the Oval Office.
“Our opening softball questions to try to lull Trump expended, we moved on to harder ones and he began to look at the red button, mounted on a nine by three-inch wooden box,” he wrote.
“Suddenly he jabbed it, and we froze in shocked silence. The president smiled.”
“Seconds later, a butler emerged from an Oval Office side door with an iced Diet Coke on a silver platter, and placed it in front of him,” he added.
Trump indeed noticed that they were surprised by the button.
“You guys want one?” he reportedly asked. “Yes please Mr. President,” they answered.
The return of the red button is one of several changes coming to the White House.
Kate Andersen Brower, who wrote a bestselling book called “The Residence” which details the inner workings of the executive mansion, said in an interview with the Daily Mail that the transition back to the Trumps will be easier on the staff “because they’ve lived there before.”
“There aren’t any mysteries about what [the Trumps] would they like to have for breakfast, how they operate, what kind of shampoo they use,” she said. “I mean, they know everything already.”
The staff knew when President Joe Biden stepped away from the presidential race in July that the White House would soon have new occupants, and they likely prepared for both scenarios.
“They would have had done their research on Kamala Harris and her family and their kind of lifestyle,” Brower continued. “‘They would have already known kind of what to expect, especially since she was VP, there would be some understanding there.”
But the staff apparently had at least one reason to root for a Trump victory this year.
“He would, like, tip them cash,” Bowser said. “I was told he would hand out $50 bills.”
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