I went the entire four years of the Trump “presidency” without hearing the story about his “Diet Coke Button.” Maybe I did hear it once and then I just immediately forgot it because Donald Trump is a white supremacist fascist and there were more pressing concerns. Here’s the story: when Trump moved into the White House, he became enchanted with the trappings of the Oval Office. There was just one thing missing: a button he could push to immediately summon a Diet Coke, his favorite beverage. He guzzles Diet Coke constantly, always has. So, Trump had a Diet Coke button installed. It was a little box front-and-center on the Resolute Desk. And it only took a few hours for President Biden to uninstall that sh-t.

President Biden has removed the Diet Coke button. When @ShippersUnbound and I interviewed Donald Trump in 2019, we became fascinated by what the little red button did. Eventually Trump pressed it, and a butler swiftly brought in a Diet Coke on a silver platter. It’s gone now. pic.twitter.com/rFzhPaHYjk

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) January 21, 2021

Here’s the thing: I enjoy a diet soda pop, as President Biden would say, but it’s absolutely crazy that Trump even had a Diet Coke button installed, and it’s equally crazy that it was someone’s job to carry a Diet Coke into the Oval Office on a silver platter. Can presidents not simply install a mini-fridge in that Oval Office passageway? So, I’m glad President Biden uninstalled the Diet Coke button, even if it was a missed opportunity for Biden to simply make it into an ice cream button. “See, kids, if I push this button on my desk, a man will walk in with an ice cream cone in less than a minute, I swear to God!”

The Washington Post had a story on Inauguration Day about the quick changes that President Biden requested for the Oval Office beyond, apparently, removing the Diet Coke button. Gone are the Andrew Jackson portraits and Nazi paraphenalia. President Biden’s Oval Office includes the triumphant return of the navy rug, portraits of FDR, Alexander Hamiliton, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Scattered around the room, President Biden has busts of Martin Luther King Jr, Robert Kennedy, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Cesar Chavez. Pres. Biden also wanted “a sculpture depicting a horse and rider by Allan Houser of the Chiricahua Apache tribe that once belonged to the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) — the first Japanese American elected to both houses of Congress.”

(The Diet Coke Button was the small wood box beside Trump’s phones.)

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.