Against the backdrop of 2020 election drama fizzing across the country, former President Donald Trump opted to pop the question about whether he should remain in office to his Diet Coke “butler.”
In public, Trump stated he would depart the White House if the Electoral College cemented President Joe Biden’s victory, but behind the scenes, he was mulling the prospects of staying put, according to New York Times writer Maggie Haberman’s upcoming book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.
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At one point behind the scenes, Trump was adamant that he was not going to leave.
“I’m just not going to leave,” he confided in one aide, according to a preview by CNN.”We’re never leaving,” Trump insisted to another aide. “How can you leave when you won an election?”
As he grappled with what to do, Trump peppered nearly everyone around him with questions, including his Diet Coke “butler,” according to the book. Trump’s red button on his Resolute Desk in the Oval Office was reportedly a frequent point of amusement for the former president.
He would reportedly use the button to prank guests into thinking he was on the cusp of unleashing nuclear firepower, when in reality it was used to summon his Diet Coke valet.
“Out of nowhere, he’d suddenly press the button,” a former aide wrote in a memoir describing the button, according to the Hill. “Not sure what to do, guests would look at one another with raised eyebrows. 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.”
Biden has since removed the button from the Resolute Desk. It is not immediately clear what the valet advised the former president to do.
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Trump departed the White House in January 2021 following a tense riot at the Capitol that disrupted lawmakers as they gathered to certify the 2020 election results. However, Trump continues to claim the election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him.
Haberman’s book is slated for release on Oct. 4.
