President Trump used his annual Christmas address to members of the armed forces to attack members of Congress and a former FBI director while defending his border wall and denying claims he colluded with Russia during the election.
If that wasn’t enough, he also questioned, in a bizarre and almost cruel way, a 7-year-old’s belief in Santa Claus, telling the child it was “marginal” at that age to still think Father Christmas is real.
“Are you still a believer in Santa?” Trump said to a child calling in to the federal government’s official “Santa Tracker,” run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “Because at 7, it’s marginal, right?” Trump said.
Donald Trump, answering phone call from 7-year-old on Christmas Eve: "Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven it's marginal, right?" pic.twitter.com/VHexvFSbQ1
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 25, 2018
During a photo op for his call to the military, Trump decided to defend shutting down the government over funding for his border wall and slam former FBI director James Comey.
He ended his remarks by declaring: ‘It’s a disgrace what’s happening in our country, but other than that, I wish everybody a very merry Christmas.’
The US government remains partially shut down, and there is still no sign of any tangible efforts to reopen agencies closed by a political impasse over Trump’s demand for border wall funds.
‘I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen,’ said Trump.
‘I can tell you it’s not going to reopen until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want, but it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into the country, from drugs.’
He continued: ‘If you don’t have that, then we’re just not opening.’
Funding for about a quarter of federal programs – including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture – expired at midnight on Friday.
Without a deal to break the impasse, the shutdown is likely to stretch into the new year.
Building the wall was one of Trump’s most frequently repeated campaign promises, but Democrats are vehemently opposed to it.
He had initially promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, but now insists that taxpayers absorb the cost.
Trump has also now said he is willing to raise a fence instead of a wall.
Besides the government shutdown, Trump is also dealing with he stock market, which just suffered the worst Christmas Eve trading session in U.S. history.