You can get the string value by calling the magic function ->__tostring()
or casting the object to a (string)
. But most time you don't need to do this, because if you use the translation object in a string context it will return the translated string automatically.
You can't change the original string in the translation object. You have to generate a new one with the t-function:
$button['#value'] = $this->t('new text');