Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Inside Biden’s Oval Office: no more Trump ‘Diet Coke button’

Inside Biden’s Oval Office: no more Trump ‘Diet Coke button’

All presidents tweak the Oval Office decor at the start of their terms to reflect their personal tastes and to telegraph broader messages to the public.

A button former president Donald Trump used to order Diet Cokes while sitting at the Resolute Desk in the White House has apparently been moved since President Joe Biden took office.

Trump first showed off the wooden call box in 2017 interviews with the Associated Press and the Financial Times. He showed reporters that with a push of a red button, a White House butler would bring him a glass of soda in the Oval Office.

In the years after, Trump was pictured regularly with the rectangular wooden box on the desk, right next to his phones.


US President Joe Biden at the Resolute Desk.


The call button is not new and isn’t only used for ordering fizzy drinks – President Barack Obama was once pictured with it on a table during a lunch with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

But Biden appears to have moved the call button off his desk.

Instead, photos of his desk on Biden’s first day of office show two phones, a coffee cup, a set of pens. It’s unclear where the call button went.


Presidents almost always redesign the Oval Office upon taking office, and the call button wasn’t the only thing Biden changed.

Biden replaced a portrait of President Andrew Jackson with a portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and opted to feature a number of progressives and activists through the room, including Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jnr, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, and labour leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.

He also chose to display portraits of Benjamin Franklin, President Thomas Jefferson, and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.


A bust of Mexican-American labour leader Cesar Chavez with Biden family photos in the Oval Office.


The most visually striking change is Biden’s choice of a deep blue rug, with the presidential seal in the middle, that was last used by President Bill Clinton, to replace a light coloured rug laid down by Trump. Biden is also using Clinton’s deep gold draperies.

Biden is keeping the Resolute desk, so named because it was built using oak from the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute.


Portraits in the Oval Office.


The White House maintains a vast collection of furniture, paintings and other artefacts that they can choose from. Presidents are also allowed to borrow items from the Smithsonian and other museums.

The White House curator oversees everything, and the makeover is carried out in the hours after the outgoing president leaves the mansion and before the new president arrives.

Biden also replaced a row of military service flags Trump used to decorate the office with a single American flag and a flag with the presidential seal, both positioned behind his desk.

He also chose a tufted, dark brown leather chair instead of keeping the reddish brown desk chair Trump used.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks With Britain
Germany Hit by Major Airport Strikes Disrupting European Travel
Russia Deploys Hypersonic Missile in Strike on Ukraine
There is no sovereign immunity for poisoning millions with drugs.
Béla Tarr, Visionary Hungarian Filmmaker, Dies at Seventy After Long Illness
German Intelligence Secretly Intercepted Obama’s Air Force One Communications
The U.S. State Department’s account in Persian: “President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know it until now, now you do—do not play games with President Trump.”
President Trump Says United States Will Administer Venezuela Until a Secure Leadership Transition
Delta Force Identified as Unit Behind U.S. Operation That Captured Venezuela’s President
Europe’s Luxury Sanctions Punish Russian Consumers While a Sanctions-Circumvention Industry Thrives
Europe’s Largest Defence Groups Set to Return Nearly Five Billion Dollars to Shareholders in Twenty Twenty-Five
Diamonds Are Powering a New Quantum Revolution
The Battle Over the Internet Explodes: The United States Bars European Officials and Ignites a Diplomatic Crisis
Fine Wine Investors Find Little Cheer in Third Year of Falls
Caviar and Foie Gras? China Is Becoming a Luxury Food Powerhouse
Hackers Are Hiding Malware in Open-Source Tools and IDE Extensions
Traveling to USA? Homeland Security moving toward requiring foreign travelers to share social media history
Trump in Direct Assault: European Leaders Are Weak, Immigration a Disaster. Russia Is Strong and Big — and Will Win
EU Firms Struggle with 3,000-Hour Paperwork Load — While Automakers Fear De Facto 2030 Petrol Car Ban
White House launches ‘Hall of Shame’ site to publicly condemn media outlets for alleged bias
European States Approve First-ever Military-Grade Surveillance Network via ESA
The Ukrainian Sumo Wrestler Who Escaped the War — and Is Captivating Japan
MediaWorld Sold iPad Air for €15 — Then Asked Customers to Return Them or Pay More
Car Parts Leader Warns Europe Faces Heavy Job Losses in ‘Darwinian’ Auto Shake-Out
Families Accuse OpenAI of Enabling ‘AI-Driven Delusions’ After Multiple Suicides
U.S. Envoys Deliver Ultimatum to Ukraine: Sign Peace Deal by Thursday or Risk Losing American Support
The U.S. State Department Announces That Mass Migration Constitutes an Existential Threat to Western Civilization and Undermines the Stability of Key American Allies
A Decade of Innovation Stagnation at Apple: The Cook Era Critique
German Entertainment Icons Alice and Ellen Kessler Die Together at Age 89
AI Researchers Claim Human-Level General Intelligence Is Already Here
Tragedy in Serbia: Coach Mladen Žižović Collapses During Match and Dies at 44
Trump–Putin Budapest Summit Cancelled After Moscow Memo Raises Conditions for Ukraine Talks
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
China Presses Netherlands to “properly” Resolve the Nexperia Seizure as Supply Chain Risks Grow
Merz Attacks Migrants, Sparks Uproar, and Refuses to Apologize: “Ask Your Daughters”
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
×