Trump to Reinstate Famed 'Diet Coke Button' in the Oval Office
President-elect Donald Trump is set to bring back his well-known red Diet Coke button in the Oval Office when he returns to the White House next month.
According to a Thursday report from the U.K. Daily Mail, the permanent, apolitical staff of butlers, housekeepers, chefs, and other workers at the executive mansion are preparing to welcome the Trumps back. They are ready to rearrange the space to suit the Trumps’ preferences, down to small details like the red Diet Coke button that Trump famously kept on his desk.
Trump used to press the button on the Resolute Desk whenever he wanted a Diet Coke, his beverage of choice.
A staff member would then deliver a glass of the soda on a silver tray. During his first term, this task was typically handled by his personal valet, Walt Nauta.
Visitors to the Oval Office were sometimes startled when Trump pressed the red button, only to feel relieved when it simply resulted in a drink delivery.
Tom Newton Dunn, a journalist for The Times, a British newspaper, recounted in a November piece how he had once been one of those surprised visitors during an interview with Trump 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,” Dunn 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 continued.
Trump clearly noticed their reaction to the button.
“You guys want one?” he reportedly asked. “Yes please Mr. President,” they replied.
The return of the red button is just one of several changes coming to the White House.
Kate Andersen Brower, author of the bestselling book The Residence, which explores the inner workings of the White House, told the Daily Mail that transitioning back to the Trumps will likely be easier for 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 explained. “I mean, they know everything already.”
The staff, aware since July when President Joe Biden stepped away from the presidential race that a change was imminent, likely prepared for both outcomes.
“They would have had done their research on Kamala Harris and her family and their kind of lifestyle,” Brower said. “They would have already known kind of what to expect, especially since she was VP, there would be some understanding there.”
However, the staff may have had at least one reason to prefer Trump’s return to the White House.
“He would, like, tip them cash,” Brower noted. “I was told he would hand out $50 bills.”