Donald Trump has temporarily removed the iconic Resolute Desk used by his Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama from the Oval Office and replaced it with the C&O desk.
Crafted from the once-abandoned British arctic exploration ship the HMS Resolute and gifted to President Rutherford Haye by Queen Victoria in 1880, the Resolute Desk has been used by almost every U.S. leader in West Wing.
The Resolute Desk marks one of six – along with the C&O, Theodore Roosevelt, Hoover, Johnson, and Wilson – that have been placed in the Oval Office since the room’s construction in 1909 as a symbol of one’s presidency, along with providing a practical workspace.
Now, Trump has revealed that the Resolute Desk needs to be refurbished, and has instead opted to bring in a “beautiful,” albeit “temporary,” replacement.
“A President, after election, gets a choice of 1 in 7 desks,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, appearing to skew his figures.
C&O stands for Chesapeake and Ohio Railway because the desk was originally built for the company’s owners. It was first used in the Oval Office Study in 1975 before officially being donated by the GSX corporation, a mass rail transit company, to the White House in 1987.
“This desk, the ‘C&O,’ which is also 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 vital job. This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!”
Since 1977, the Resolute Desk has remained a firm fixture in the Oval Office and used by every president bar George H.W. Bush, who opted for the C&O Desk. Bush Sr is the only president to use the C&O Desk, marking it as the shortest-serving desk to date.
Other incumbents, such as Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan used the C&O desk in the West Wing Study.
Only three presidents are believed not to have used the Resolute Desk at all in the West Wing: Lyndon B Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, according to the White House Historical Association.
The Resolute Desk was first used in the Oval Office by John F Kennedy in 1961. After JFK’s assassination in 1963, which saw Johnson ascend to the Oval Office, he selected the Johnson Desk.
After being retired, the Resolute Desk was then displayed in the Smithsonian between 1966 and 1977, when Jimmy Carter returned the Resolute Desk to the Oval Office.
Most recently, the Resolute Desk was used by Democratic former presidents Biden between 2021 and 2025 and Obama between 2009 and 2017. Trump also used the desk in his first term between 2017 and 2021.
The Independent has contacted the White House for more information.
