Remember when billionaire Elon Musk brought his son X Æ A-Xii, whom he calls X, to the Oval Office? From making weird noises to picking his nose, the 4-year-old, who was standing close to the President’s Resolute Desk, grabbed headlines. Now, President Donald Trump has replaced the iconic 145-year-old desk with a C&O desk. He has called it a “temporary change.”
Donald Trump, who has in the past labelled himself as a germophobe, shared a picture of the Oval Office with the new desk on his social media platform Truth Social.
It was not clear if the change was brought in due to the nose-picking incident.
The note attached to the post read, “A President, after the election, gets a choice of 1 in 7 desks. This desk, the “C&O,” which is also very well known and was used by President George H.W. Bush and others, has been temporarily installed in the White House while the Resolute Desk is being lightly refinished—a very important job. This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!”
The Resolute Desk was a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes from Queen Victoria in 1880 as a token of “goodwill and friendship”. It was made using the oak timbers of the British ship H.M.S. Resolute.
As per the White House, the desk was used by every president since Rutherford B. Hayes, except presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford (from 1964 to 1977.) It must be noted that the Resolute desk was first used in the Oval Office in 1961 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.
Elon Musk’s son was part of the press briefing on a new executive order pertaining to the billionaire’s role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. While introducing him, Donald Trump said, “This is X, and he’s a great guy—a high IQ individual.”
Videos of X mimicking his billionaire dad and picking his nose had created abuzz online.