Donald Trump's Resolute Desk refurbishment linked to Elon Musk's son's nose-picking incident at Oval Office
Billionaire Elon Musk's son X Æ A-Xii was reportedly seen wiping his nose on the Resolute Desk during a recent visit to the White House.
US President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the 150-year-old iconic Resolute Desk removed from the Oval Office for refurbishment, days after world's richest man Elon Musk’s son seemingly wiped a booger on it during their visit to the White House.
“A President, after the election, gets a choice of 1 in 7 desks,” Donald Trump wrote on social media.
“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!” Trump wrote.
Trump did not mention the name of Musk's son in the post.
However, some US media outlets such as the New York Post and New York Daily News linked it to the visit by Tesla CEO Musk's son X Æ A-Xii, news agency PTI reported.
The child, whose mother is pop star Grimes, once wriggled his finger in his nose before apparently wiping the award on the renowned desk. President John F. Kennedy used it in 1961, and later, Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden used it while in office.
The billionaire's son attended a press conference on a new executive order regarding Elon Musk's role as director of the Department of Government Efficiency. "This is X, and he's a great guy—a high-IQ individual," Trump added upon introducing him.
Was the desk taken down because of the incident involving Musk's son? Whether the nose-picking incident was the reason of the alteration is still unknown.
In a 2017 news conference, Trump reaffirmed his worries about handshaking, calling it a "barbaric" habit and adding, “I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me.”
President George H W Bush of the United States used the C&O Desk.
Both his predecessors, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, utilised the Resolute Desk. The 145-year-old Resolute Desk has played a significant role in American political history, but the C&O desk was utilised elsewhere in the White House prior to George H.W. Bush's employment of it, New York Post report added.
What is this Resolution Desk made of?
The oak wood from the British ship HMS Resolute was used to make the Resolute Desk. President Rutherford B. Hayes received the desk as a gift from Queen Victoria in 1880. Since then, almost every president has used it, with the exception of Gerald R. Ford, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
The wood C&O Desk in the Georgian style has golden knobs. According to the publication, the desk was constructed for one of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's proprietors and then presented to the White House, hence the abbreviation for the desk.
Before the West Wing was built in 1902, the desk was most frequently used on the White House's Second Floor, which housed the president's offices. President Harry S. Truman was the first to use the revised version of the desk in 1945, when a panel engraved with the Presidential Coat-of-Arms was added to the back kneehole.
John F. Kennedy was the first president to use the desk in the Oval Office.
George H W Bush was the first and only president − up until Trump − to utilise the C&O Desk.
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Theodore Roosevelt Desk, The Johnson Desk, The Hoover Desk, and The Wilson Desk are other desks a sitting president can choose from.
