Trump Warns of Bad Santa Infiltrating US, Jokes With Kids in Xmas Eve Interaction
WEST PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump celebrated Christmas Eve by quizzing children about what gifts they were excited to receive, while promising not to let a “bad Santa” infiltrate the country and even suggesting a stockpile of coal might not be so bad after all.
Vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the president and first lady Melania Trump participated in the tradition of speaking to youngsters affiliated with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, who playfully track Santa’s progress around the world.
“We want to make sure Santa is good. Santa is a very good person,” Trump said while speaking to children ages 4 and 10 in Oklahoma. “We want to make sure that he doesn’t infiltrate, that an evil Santa doesn’t infiltrate our country.”
He did not explain in detail.
Trump has often marked his Christmas past with criticism of his political foes, including posting “Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Crazies” in 2024. Early in his first term, on December 24, 2017, Trump wrote an online op-ed targeting a senior FBI official and the news media who he believed were biased against him.
In fact, he returned to this topic shortly after wrapping up his Christmas Eve calls on Wednesday, writing: “Merry Christmas to everyone, including the Radical Left Scum who did everything possible to destroy our country but failed miserably.”
But Trump was in a cheerful mood while talking to the children. He even said at one point that he “could do this all day” but would probably have to get back to more pressing matters, such as efforts to quell conflict in Russia’s war with Ukraine.
When an 8-year-old boy from North Carolina asked Santa if he would be upset if no one left him cookies, Trump said he didn’t think so: “But I think he’ll be very disappointed.”
“You know, Santa Claus tends to be a little angelic. Do you know what angelic means? A little on the heavy side,” Trump joked. “I think Santa would like some cookies.”
The President and First Lady Melania Trump sat side by side and answered nearly a dozen calls. At one point, while his wife was on the phone and Trump was waiting to connect to another call, he noticed how little attention she was paying him: “She can be completely focused without listening.”
When an 8-year-old girl in Kansas asked what she wanted Santa to bring, the answer was: “Not coal.”
“You mean clean, nice coal?” Trump responded to this question by recalling his favorite campaign slogan, which he has long used when promising to revive domestic coal production.
“I had to do that, I’m sorry,” the president added with a laugh, even causing the First Lady, who was in a separate conversation, to turn and smile at him.
“Coal is clean and beautiful. Please remember that at all costs,” Trump said. “But you don’t want nice, clean coal, do you?”
The caller responded, “No,” and said she would prefer the Barbie doll, clothes and candy.
