Overview
- The president and first lady joined NORAD’s Santa-tracking hotline from Mar-a-Lago, taking about a dozen calls during a roughly 20-minute session.
- Trump told young callers the U.S. must ensure “we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa” and joked that Santa has a “cherubic” appetite for cookies.
- When an 8-year-old said she didn’t want coal, Trump replied “you mean clean, beautiful coal” and described coal as “clean and beautiful.”
- He conducted his calls on speakerphone so the press could listen, while Melania Trump used a headset for private conversations.
- Afterward, he called U.S. service members and posted a sharply partisan Truth Social message, as journalists flagged his false claim about having won Pennsylvania.