President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House. Photo / AP
President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House. Photo / AP
New US President Joe Biden has moved quickly to enact changes to Trump administration policy in his first 24 hours in the job.
He's also made crucial Oval Office alterations - including the removal of Donald Trump's notorious "Diet Coke" button from the presidential desk.
Biden's first step was changing the White House decor to underline his different priorities and beliefs, and a definitive break with the Trump era.
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
Framed photos of the family are now on display in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk, beside a bust of Cesar Chavez, a Latin American workers rights activist.
Biden has filled the room with portraits and busts of American historical figures, including a painting of Benjamin Franklin to represent Biden's interest in following science, his office told The Washington Post.
He also removed the "Diet Coke" button from the Oval Office desk, according to HuffPost.
Trump, a Diet Coke fanatic, reportedly drank around 12 of the fizzy drink a day during his time in the White House, despite calling Coca-Cola products "garbage" in a 2012 tweet.
When the button was pressed, a butler would bring him a glass of the calorie-free soda.
"Midway through my April 23, 2017, interview with President Donald Trump, he reached over and pressed a red button on his desk in the Oval Office. It didn't trigger a nuclear launch or send advisers scurrying into the room. Instead, a White House butler walked in with a single glass of Diet Coke on a silver tray for the commander in chief," Associated Press reporter Julie Pace wrote in 2018.
The button was later confirmed by the Financial Times' Demetri Sevastopulo, who jokingly asked Trump if the button would unleash a catastrophic weapon. "No no, everyone thinks it [will]," Trump responded. "Everyone does get a little nervous when I press that button."
Biden has removed Trump's military flags and replaced them with an American flag and a presidential seal. He also removed a portrait hung by Trump of populist former president Andrew Jackson, who kept slaves and signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to thousands of Native American deaths.
if you elect me president in 2024, there will be a Diet Coke button in every home, and butler's will show up every hour on the hour to force Diet Cokes into your hand whether you want one or not
— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) January 21, 2021
Instead, paintings of former president Thomas Jefferson and former treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton are hung near each other as "hallmarks of how differences of opinion, expressed within the guardrails of the Republic, are essential to democracy", according to his office.
President Biden begins signing a tall stack of executive orders during his first Oval Office appearance for press. pic.twitter.com/oh1JqG0iJP
The President has also paired paintings of former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but will not display a bust of Winston Churchill reinstalled by Trump.
The office also includes busts of Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt and a sculpture of a horse by Allan Houser of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, which once belonged to the late Senator Daniel K Inouye, the first Japanese American elected to both houses of Congress.
In other moves, Biden has signed 17 executive actions, rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change and setting up plans to ensure race, gender and LGBT equality.
President Joe Biden signs executive orders after speaking about the coronavirus, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Photo / AP
The 46th president of the United States ended his predecessor's controversial travel ban on Muslim and African and halted construction of the US-Mexico border wall.
Biden also beefed up the United States' Covid-19 approach, restoring the directorate for global health security and biodefence at the National Security Council that Trump disbanded, appointing Jeffrey Zients as the response coordinator and requiring social distancing and mask-wearing on all federal property.
"Wearing masks isn't a partisan issue — it's a patriotic act that can save countless lives," Biden said, after the US passed the grim milestone of 400,000 coronavirus deaths.
He revoked the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and instructed all executive agencies to review executive actions that were damaging to the environment.
"We're going to rebuild our economy as well, and these are just starting points," said Biden, promising support for underserved communities. "I think some of the things we're going to be doing are bold and vital, and there's no time to start like today."
