US President Donald Trump’s Christmas Eve phone calls with children have drawn criticism after he repeatedly referenced the 2020 presidential election while discussing Santa Claus.
Speaking via the NORAD Santa tracker from his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump told a five-year-old from Pennsylvania: “We won Pennsylvania, actually, three times,” despite losing the state in the 2020 election. He also warned of a “bad Santa” infiltrating the country and referenced Oklahoma’s support for him in the election.
Social media users expressed dismay, with one calling the exchanges “cringe” and another accusing Trump of “destroying the spirit of Christmas.” A 2018 call also resurfaced, in which Trump asked a seven-year-old if he still believed in Santa, adding that at age seven “it’s marginal.”
Trump’s Christmas Day message was similarly controversial, branding opponents “Radical Left Scum” in a post on X.
