what is the red button on the presidents desk

Usually, the phones for the secure top-level telephone network can be recognized by a bright yellow faceplate, as can be seen at the modified Cisco IP phone that is used when the president is outside the White House, for example. Maybe this was considered safer, or maybe it's just to make both phone sets look the same, so outsiders cannot see whether the president is making a classified or an unclassified phone call based upon which telephone he is using. The Signal board also connects to the White House Situation Room.ĭespite being used for classified conversations, the Cisco 8851 IP phone for secure calls wasn't equipped with the additional security features like the non-secure telephone - probably because secure calls travel over a separate, encrypted network, which mitigates the risk that adversaries can abuse the phone's microphones for eavesdropping.īut now, under president Biden, the phone for secure calls also has the modifications for on-hook security.

The WHCA is a joint military unit that provides the president with secure and non-secure communications in Washington as well as during presidential travels. This telephone replaced an old Cisco 7975 IP phone in September 2017 and connects to the so-called Signal switchboard of the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). The standard, unmodified Cisco 8851 IP phone on Trump's desk was for the highly secure Executive Voice over Secure IP-network which is part of the Crisis Management System (CMS) and connects the President, the National Security Council, Cabinet members, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, various intelligence agency headquarters and watch centers, as well as Continuity of Operations (COOP) sites. This telephone connects to the regular White House switchboard in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where operators can set up calls to whoever the president wants to speak with.

The modified Cisco 8851 IP phone was placed on the president's desk by the end of 2016, replacing an old Avaya/Lucent 8520T of the internal White House telephone network which is used for all kinds of unclassified phone calls. See also: Trump's 'beautiful' Oval Office phones and what was changed on them

What is the red button on the presidents desk