Biden brought the button Trump used to order Diet Cokes back to the Oval Office

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Biden brought the button Trump used to order Diet Cokes back to the Oval Office
President Joe Biden looks up after singing an Executive Order reversing the Trump era ban on Transgender serving in military, in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, in Washington.AP Photo/Evan Vucci
  • Former President Donald Trump used a call button in the Oval Office to order Diet Cokes from staff.
  • President Joe Biden initially moved the button off the Resolute desk during his first day in office.
  • But it appears the call button — which has been around for decades — is back.
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President Joe Biden has brought back a call button former President Donald Trump used to order Diet Cokes while sitting in the Oval Office after briefly removing it from the Resolute desk.

Photos from Monday show the call box sitting next to Biden's phones, in the same place Trump placed the box when he would sit at there.

The call box was not seen in pictures of Biden on his first day in office last week.

Trump used the wooden call box throughout his entire presidency, and first showed it off in 2017 interviews with The Associated Press and the Financial Times, during which he told reporters: "Everyone does get a little nervous when I press that button."

The call box has been around for decades and other recent presidents have also been pictured in the White House with it, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

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It can be used to call White House staff, Secret Service Agents, and other officials, but Trump appeared to have told his staff that if he pressed the button, he wanted a Diet Coke.

Biden brought the button Trump used to order Diet Cokes back to the Oval Office
President Donald Trump sits at the Resolute Desk after signing Section 201 actions in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

It's unclear if Biden has a specific use for the button, or if it will be used more generally.

Like presidents before him, Biden also changed a number of decorations upon entering the Oval Office.

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

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

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