At this point — it’s been nearly a year since this began — I’m going to assume that you know who Pete Souza is and what his shtick is. The former official photographer of the Obama administration, Souza spent eight years up close and personal at the White House. Now, he posts those photos on Instagram any time they’re remotely relevant to whatever thing Trump has done that day or week. When Trump claimed that Obama never called the families of fallen soldiers, Souza posted a photo of Obama with a grieving military family. When Trump declined to throw the first pitch on opening day for the Washington Nationals, Souza shared a shot of Obama warming up his throwing arm. And yesterday, when Trump tweeted to let Kim Jong-un know that he could easily — “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” — start a nuclear war, Souza was at the ready with not one, but two photos. The first, captioned “God help us,” appears to show a military official boarding a plane carrying the nuclear football. (Remember when somebody took pictures with Rick, the guy carrying the football at Mar-a-Lago, and posted them on Facebook last February?)
The second shows the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with a tiny, red button built into it. Souza notes that this button is used for calling a valet, not for potentially blowing up the world as we know it.
Donald Trump infamously uses this button to order somebody to bring him a Coke whenever he’d like one. Here’s hoping that continues to be the only one he presses liberally.
