--- title: Donald Trump: Coke Button in Oval Office Summons a Butler description: President Trump has a little red box on his desk in the Oval Office that people think resembles the nuclear button. canonical: https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-27T20:38:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:21.738Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke og:description: It's on the Resolute Desk. og:url: https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6810a00126fe220/6988c3c60a4a2271c59cdceb/trump1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Speaks With German Chancellor Angela Merkel On The Telephone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke twitter:description: It's on the Resolute Desk. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6810a00126fe220/6988c3c60a4a2271c59cdceb/trump1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1PwxZnjP.m3u8) (2:43)  _Published 2017-08-24. Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Apr 27, 2017 8:38 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 28, 2017 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 28, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Apr 27, 2017 8:38 PM UTC [President Trump](http://time.com/4756751/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner/) has a button on his desk in the Oval Office that summons a butler to bring him a Coke. In two recent interviews, Trump showed off the button. “Sitting across from [Donald Trump](http://time.com/money/4744620/trump-tower-fifth-avenue-retail/) in the[ Oval Office, ](http://time.com/4748290/sarah-palin-kid-rock-ted-nugent-donald-trump-photo/)my eyes are drawn to a little red button on a box that sits on his desk,” [The Financial Times’ Demetri Sevastopulo](https://www.ft.com/content/548baa3a-2a00-11e7-9ec8-168383da43b7) writes. Sevastopulo jokingly asked Trump if this was the nuclear button. “No no, everyone thinks it is,” Sevastopulo says Trump responds, and then uses the button to order a Diet Coke. “Everyone does get a little nervous when I press that button,” Trump tells Sevastopulo. This red button was also noticed by Associated Press reporter Julie Pace when she interviewed Trump in the Oval Office about his first 100 days in the White House. “With the push of a red button placed on the Resolute Desk that presidents have used for decades,” [Pace writes, ](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/205ad54dc72e4ab69b3a214c96eeb9ce/trumps-100-days-rattled-establishment-some-surprises)“a White House butler soon arrived with a Coke for the president.” “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert [recently mocked](http://mashable.com/2017/04/27/stephen-colbert-trump-coke-button/#u.rmlSxddkqu) the button, saying it turns the White House into something like “a an eight year old’s drawing of a treehouse.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/"},"headline":"President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke","datePublished":"2017-04-27T20:38:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:21.738Z","description":"President Trump has a little red box on his desk in the Oval Office that people think resembles the nuclear button.","url":"https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/","keywords":["Donald Trump","coke","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6810a00126fe220/6988c3c60a4a2271c59cdceb/trump1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6810a00126fe220/6988c3c60a4a2271c59cdceb/trump1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Speaks With German Chancellor Angela Merkel On The Telephone","caption":"President Trump Speaks With German Chancellor Angela Merkel On The Telephone","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/","name":"President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons","description":"Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1PwxZnjP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-08-24T16:22:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1PwxZnjP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/","duration":"PT2M43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4758059/donald-trump-coke-nuclear-button/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```