Presidential call button
{{Short description|White House call button used by presidents of the United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
File:Hard Things Are Hard.jpg alongside the HMS Gannet pen holder, a "Hard things are hard" plaque given to president Obama by David Axelrod, and a Petoskey stone given to Obama by Pete Souza's wife for his 50th birthday.{{Cite Instagram |postid=BRCdveTlWQ3 |user=petesouza |title=Hard things ARE hard. And sometimes complex. David Axelrod gave this plaque to President Obama after uttering these words during the fight to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010. |date=2017-02-27}}{{Cite Instagram |postid=CLHQuaklw5o |user=petesouza |title=An occasional series of photographs. The premise being that in addition to photographing President Obama, I often turned my camera on what it was like to be inside the bubble of the presidency without necessarily showing the president himself. The president's cup of tea. 1. On the Resolute Desk alongside a Petoskey stone (a gift to him from my wife for his 50th birthday; he kept it on his desk for the remainder of his presidency), Dec. 6, 2012. 2. Intruder, Sept. 11, 2015. #TheWayISeeIt #InsideThePresidentialBubble |date=2021-02-10}}]]
An approximately {{convert|9|by|3|in|cm|sigfig=1|abbr=on}} wooden box housing a call button is present on the Oval Office desk in the Oval Office of the White House. This call button, also referred to as a valet button, is used to call aides to the President for various reasons. The modern version of the call button has been present since at least the George W. Bush presidency. Earlier versions of presidential call bells and buzzers have existed since the early 1800s.
History
= Past call buttons and buzzers=
{{external media
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| image1 = [https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/the-working-white-house-electric-call-button-box The Working White House: Electric Call-button Box] A c.1930 White House electric call button
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File:President George W. Bush delivers an address to the nation regarding the 911 Terrorist Attacks (cropped).jpg during 9/11, with the call button on the desk, to his left]]
File:Barack Obama shows Washington, D.C. area students the valet button on his desk, 2010.jpg pointing out the call button to Washington, D.C. area students.]]
File: Donald Trump Cabinet meeting 2017-03-13 03.jpg's telephone on the Resolute desk in March 2017]]
Before the mid 1800s, a series of call bells was installed in the White House and used as a form of staff communication. This system was followed by a battery operated device, used by the President, that could be used to call on staff. The White House was wired for electricity in 1891 allowing for simple wired call-buttons.{{Cite web |title=The Working White House: Electric Call-button Box |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/the-working-white-house-electric-call-button-box |access-date=2025-01-24 |website=White House Historical Association}}
An 1881 letter written by White House disbursing agent William H. Crook refers to an electric bell attached to president James Garfield's desk.{{cite book|url={{Google books|hBzSPsNKAUEC|page=62|plainurl=yes}} |title=The White House: The Ronald W. Reagan Administration, 1981-1989 |page=62 |editor=Office of the Chief Usher |publisher=The White House |year=1989 |access-date=January 22, 2021}}
Betty C. Monkman notes in The White House: Its Historic Furnishings & First Families that the Treaty table, also known as the Grant Cabinet table, has the remains of a call button system still attached to it, but does not state when this system was used.{{Cite book |title=The White House: Its Historic Furnishings & First Families |last=Monkman |first=Betty C. |publisher=Abbeville Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-7892-0624-2 |pages=292}}
In the 1889 Publication Historic Homes in Washington; its noted men and women by Mary S. Lockwood a story is told about Benjamin Harrison's grandson pushing a call button on the President's desk. She wrote:
{{blockquote|Did not little Benjamin, when alone one day in his grandfather's office, climb to his table, and by a touch here and there with his baby hand, set the whole force of secretaries, clerks and messengers on a chase to do his majesty's bidding?{{Cite book |title=Historic Homes in Washington; its noted men and women |last=Lockwood |first=Mary S. |publisher=Belford company |year=1889 |location=New York |pages=147 |url=https://archive.org/details/historichomesinw00lock/page/146/mode/2up}}{{sfn|Plotnick|2018|p=43}}}}
Lyndon Johnson had a series of buttons, or keys, to summon different drinks to the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and "Little Lounge" (a room just next to the Oval Office). In the Oval Office the keys were on the table behind the president's desk. The four keys were for coffee, tea, Coca-Cola and Fresca; when pressed, a butler would fulfill the president's drink request.{{Cite tweet |author=Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum |author-link=Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum |user=LBJLibrary |number=857265417747824646 |title=Many have asked about LBJ having a Fresca button in the White House. Short answer—yes, he did. More details from our archives |df=ymd |access-date=2021-01-26 |link=yes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131093143/https://twitter.com/LBJLibrary/status/857265417747824646 |archive-date=2021-01-31 |url-status=live }}
During Johnson's presidency he was known for having extramarital affairs, with what Robert Dallek in his book Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times called a harem of women. Dallek, Robert. [https://archive.org/details/lonestarrisingly00dall_0/page/188/mode/2up?q=sex&view=theater lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and his times]. Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 189. Retrieved January 12, 2022. Ronald Kessler in his book Inside the Whitehouse describes multiple sexual encounters between Johnson and his secretaries in the Oval Office including one where his wife, Ladybird Johnson, walked in on Johnson and a secretary in the midst of having sex, leading to the installation of a buzzer system to warn him if Ladybird was on her way. Kessler, Ronald. [https://archive.org/details/insidewhitehouse00kess/page/n21/mode/2up?view=theater&q=sex Inside the Whitehouse]. Pocket Books. 1995. pp 1, 37. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
Several presidents had buttons or switches installed in their desk in the Oval Office to start recording devices attached to microphones in the room. This includes Dwight Eisenhower,{{Cite web |title=The Shadowy History Of Secret White House Tapes |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/05/13/528222995/the-shadowy-history-of-secret-white-house-tapes |last=Montanaro |first=Domenico |date=2017-05-13 |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=NPR}} John F. Kennedy{{cite book |last1=Widmer |first1=Ted |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRqZAAAAQBAJ&q=Resolute%20desk |title=Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy |year=2012 |publisher=Grand Central Publishing}} and Richard Nixon.[https://www.c-span.org/video/?192302-5/vice-presidents-ceremonial-office Vice President's Ceremonial Office]. C-SPAN. Program ID 192302-5. JUNE 2, 2006. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
= Modern call button =
File:P20210712AS-1842 (51417132507).jpg
File:President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office (54354615780).jpg on 25 February 2025]]
The modern call button sits in an approximately {{convert|9|by|3|in|cm|sigfig=1|abbr=on}} wooden box marked with a golden presidential seal{{cite book |last=Sims |first=Cliff |authorlink= |date=2019 |title=Team of Vipers My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ych6DwAAQBAJ&q=%22Oval%20Office%22%20%22red%20button%22 |location= |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |isbn=9781250223890 |access-date=2021-01-26 |via=Google Books |pages=77-78 }}{{cite web |url=https://content.time.com/time/politics/whitehouse/photos/0,27424,1728087,00.html |title='Yes, Mr. President': A call button for President Bush on his desk in the Oval Office |last= |first= |date=2008-04-04 |website=Time Magazine |access-date=2021-01-25 |quote= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724051104/http://content.time.com/time/politics/whitehouse/photos/0,27424,1728087,00.html |archive-date=July 24, 2014 |url-status=live }} and has been on the Resolute desk since at least the George W. Bush presidency. According to Richard Branson, President Obama repurposed it to order tea for his White House guests.{{cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obama-red-button_n_59e11edfe4b0a52aca17f8f5 |title=Obama Used His Oval Office Red Button For Tea, According To Richard Branson |last=Strutner |first=Suzy |date=2017-10-13 |website=HuffPost |access-date=2021-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003020411/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obama-red-button_n_59e11edfe4b0a52aca17f8f5 |archive-date=2018-10-03 |url-status=live }}
During Donald Trump's first term, when pressed, a signal summoned a valet who brought a Diet Coke on a silver platter. At one time Walt Nauta had this job.{{cite web |last=Hartmann |first=Margaret |date=March 21, 2023 |title=Diet Coke Valet Is Trump's Most Loyal Aide |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/03/walt-nauta-diet-coke-valet-trump-loyal-aide.html |access-date=June 10, 2023 |website=New York Intelligencer |language=en-us}} Trump reportedly also used the button to request lunch, and to pull a "recurring bit" on new visitors to the White House.{{Cite web|first=Dan|last=Evon|date=2021-01-21|title=Did Trump Have a 'Diet Coke' Button in the Oval Office?|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-diet-coke-button-oval/|access-date=2021-01-22|website=Snopes|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Lejeune|first=Tristan|date=2021-01-21|title=Trump's Diet Coke button appears to have left Oval Office when he did|url=https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/535289-trumps-diet-coke-button-appears-to-have-left-oval-office-when|access-date=2021-01-22|website=The Hill|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121201225/https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/535289-trumps-diet-coke-button-appears-to-have-left-oval-office-when |archive-date=2021-01-21 |url-status=live}} Trump stated to one reporter that "everyone thinks it is [the nuclear button]"{{Cite magazine|date=2017-04-27|first=Alana|last=Abramson|title=President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke|url=https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/|access-date=2021-01-22|magazine=Time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430054158/https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/ |archive-date=2017-04-30 |url-status=live}} and that people "get a little nervous when I press that button."{{Cite web|last=McLaughlin|first=Kelly|title=Biden brought the button Trump used to order Diet Cokes back to the Oval Office|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-brought-back-button-trump-ordered-diet-cokes-with-2021-1|access-date=2021-04-08|website=Business Insider}}
Trump further conflated this button with the nuclear button with a tweet in January 2018:
{{tweet|name=Donald J. Trump|username=realDonaldTrump|text=North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!|date=January 2, 2018|id=948355557022420992|block=yes|reference={{sfn|Plotnick|2018|p=255}}}}
Rachel Plotnick notes in her book Power Button that the "sexual one-upmanship" in this tweet was quickly undercut by news outlets noting the only button on Trump's desk "summons the White House steward with a Coca-Cola (really)."{{sfn|Plotnick|2018|pp=255-56}}
In the first few days of Joe Biden's presidency, it was reported that he had the button removed;{{Cite web|first=Graeme|last=Massie|date=2021-01-21|title=Biden removes Trump's Diet Coke button from the White House|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/diet-coke-button-biden-trump-b1791006.html|access-date=2021-01-22|website=The Independent|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122000657/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/diet-coke-button-biden-trump-b1791006.html |archive-date=2021-01-22 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web|date=2021-01-21|last=Reimann|first=Nicholas|title=Moon Rock In, Diet Coke Button Out: Here Are The Changes Joe Biden Has Made To Oval Office Decor|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/01/21/moon-rock-in-diet-coke-button-out-here-are-the-changes-joe-biden-has-made-to-oval-office-decor/|access-date=2021-01-22|website=Forbes|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122084446/https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/01/21/moon-rock-in-diet-coke-button-out-here-are-the-changes-joe-biden-has-made-to-oval-office-decor/?sh=67d49a8e6a2f |archive-date=2021-01-22 |url-status=live}} however, it appeared to return a few weeks later when a White House official told Politico that the button was back on the desk with an unspecified purpose.{{cite web |last1=Rayasam |first1=Renuka |last2=Ward |first2=Myah |title=Impeachment means 2022 is already here |url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/01/25/impeachment-means-2022-is-already-here-491516 |website=Politico|date=2021-01-25 |publisher=Robert Allbritton |access-date=2021-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126013200/https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/01/25/impeachment-means-2022-is-already-here-491516 |archive-date=2021-01-26 |url-status=live }} James Corden has said that Joe Biden had an "ice cream button" on his desk.{{cite news |author=Ashleigh Rainbird |date=29 June 2022 |title=James Corden shares excitement at finding Joe Biden's 'ice cream button' |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/james-corden-shares-excitement-finding-27361645 |access-date=January 28, 2024 |language=en-us}}
Despite reports that the button remained during the rest of Biden's term, following Trump's second inauguration, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Diet Coke button was "back", with the purpose it had during his first term.{{cite news | last=Linskey | first=Annie | title=Inside Trump's Oval Office—Version 2.0 | date=January 20, 2025 | url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/inside-trumps-oval-officeversion-2-0-9b1da2c8 | newspaper=The Wall Street Journal}}
References
{{reflist}}
=Works cited=
- {{Cite book |title=Power Button: a history of pleasure, panic, and the politics of pushing |last=Plotnick |first=Rachel |publisher=MIT Press |year=2018 |isbn=9780262038232 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1W_8EAAAQBAJ&dq=white+house+children+pressing+buttons&pg=PA43}}
External links
- {{commons category-inline|Oval Office call button}}
- [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XUfLs6VlGUI "President Trump Shares The Secret Behind the Red Button In the Oval Office" from CBS Chicago]
{{White House}}
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