The phone rings, and on the other end is a child expecting to hear about Santa Claus. Instead, the voice belongs to Donald Trump, calling from his living room in Palm Beach as NORAD tracks Santa’s journey around the world.
“Santa is a very good person,” Trump tells Jasper, a 5-year-old calling from Tulsa. “We want to make sure that he’s not infiltrated, that we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa. So we found out that Santa is good. Santa loves you. Santa loves Oklahoma, as I do. You know, Oklahoma was very good to me in the election. So I love Oklahoma. Don’t ever leave Oklahoma, okay?”
“Okay,” Jasper replies. Trump is participating in a long-standing presidential tradition, taking calls from children who dial the NORAD Santa hotline. This year, the calls were patched through to Mar-a-Lago, where reporters looked on as Trump chatted from a lavish room framed by Venetian silk panels and Romanesque columns.
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“I figure you should hear all of this,” Trump tells reporters as his speakerphone stays on. His wife, Melania Trump, sits nearby with her own receiver pressed to her ear, focused on her call and not listening in, as per reports CNN.
“She’s very focused. The first lady’s very focused,” Trump says, glancing toward her as she speaks softly to a child. “I think it’s best if they go to sleep,” Melania says into her phone. “And then Santa will arrive at your house.”
“She’s able to focus totally without listening to this,” Trump adds. “At least you know what’s happening.” Next on the line is Savannah, an 8-year-old from North Carolina, worried Santa might be upset if there are no cookies left out.
“He won’t get mad,” Trump reassures her, after asking her to repeat the question. “But I think he’ll be very disappointed. You know, Santa, he tends to be a little bit on the cherubic side. You know what cherubic means? A little on the heavy side.”
A general updates Trump on Santa’s location, now flying over Sweden. Trump relays the news to Amelia in Kansas, explaining that Santa still has “quite a trip” ahead. When Amelia worries about getting coal, Trump jokes, “You mean clean, beautiful coal? I had to do that, I’m sorry.”
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Between calls, Trump fills quiet moments by admiring the room. “You like the room, everybody? No ceiling height problem,” he says, glancing upward. A five-year-old from Pennsylvania comes next.
“Pennsylvania is great. We won Pennsylvania, actually, three times, but we won Pennsylvania,” Trump declares. “We won it in a landslide. So I love Pennsylvania.” As Santa passes over Copenhagen, Trump wraps up. “Could do this all day long,” he says. “We have to get back to China, Russia, and Ukraine.
We have to get back to other things, but this, you could do this all day long.” Across the room, Melania hangs up. “How are you doing, first lady?” Trump asks. “I’m waiting for a phone call,” she replies.
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