


Moments later, a steward would enter the room carrying a glass filled with Diet Coke on a silver platter, and Trump would burst out laughing.īut the Diet Coke button may have shaped history in ways we did not previously realize. Not sure what to do, guests would look at one another with raised eyebrows. Out of nowhere, he’d suddenly press the button. Even he seemed to know it was absurd former White House aide Cliff Sims wrote in his 2019 book, Team of Vipers, that Trump would prank guests by letting them think the button triggered nuclear weapons: The button always seemed like one of the more innocuous manifestations of Trump’s kingly posturing. When he pressed the red button in a small wooden box on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, it would inform staff that he was in the mood for another soda - a frequent occurrence, as he reportedly consumed around 12 Diet Cokes per day.

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Imagesĭonald Trump’s Diet Coke button was his most iconic addition to the White House.
