21 February 2025 , 21:40
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The White House has assured the public it’s snot a permanent change.
President Trump ordered the iconic Resolute Desk removed from the Oval Office for refurbishment after Elon Musk’s 4-year-old son, X, appeared to pick his nose and rub the desk on live TV last week.
The young Musk scion and budding nasal archaeologist, whose full name is X Æ A-12, fidgeted, babbled and, at times, wandered around when he appeared in the Oval Office with his father and Trump during a joint Q&A session about the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
At one point, the tot — whose mom is pop star Grimes — wiggled his finger around in his nostril and then seemingly wiped the resulting bounty on the famous desk, first used by John F. Kennedy in 1961 and later used by presidents including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden during their time in office.
Trump, a known germaphobe, revealed in a Truth Social post Thursday that the Resolute Desk had been temporarily replaced with the C&O desk, one of six available to the sitting president.
“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,” Trump wrote.
“This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!”
C&O is short for Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and was initially built for that company’s owners. It was initially used in the Oval Office Study in 1975 before rail company GSX donated it to the White House in 1987.
The Resolute Desk is perhaps the most famous and well-known desk to adorn the Oval Office, built from the remains of the British Arctic exploration vessel the HMS Resolute and presented by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.
World Affairs Correspondent