WASHINGTON — President Trump spoke Wednesday night with children awaiting Santa — telling one that “clean, beautiful coal” wouldn’t be such a bad discovery in her stocking and another that the government is protecting against a “bad Santa” slipping down their chimney.
Trump, 79, played along with the pretense that Father Christmas was flying over Europe while participating in the Christmas Eve NORAD Tracks Santa hotline.
The president asked Emilia, 8, of Kansas what she would like Santa to bring, drawing a firm: “Not coal!”
“No, you don’t want coal?” retorted the salesman in chief, who has spent much of the past few weeks arguing that Americans should feel confidentin the economy — citing rising GDP, real wages and stock values, in addition to declining inflation — despite polls showing broad pessimism.
“Well, coal is — you mean clean beautiful coal,” the president told the elementary schooler.
“I had to do that, I’m sorry, No, coal is clean and beautiful. Please remember at all costs. But you don’t want clean, beautiful coal, right?”
“No!” Emilia insisted.
“What would you like?’ the president inquired, with Barbies topping her list.
“Well, you’ll get that, I’m sure,” he said, before she quickly added requests for clothes and candy.
“Well, candy is good. Candy is good…. you eat as much as you want. Be healthy, okay?” the president said.
Moments earlier, Trump told Jennifer, 10, of Oklahoma, who phoned in with her 4-year-old sister Anastasia, that he was protecting them against a “bad Santa.’
“We track Santa all over the world. We want to make sure that Santa is being good. Santa is a very good person. We want to make sure that he’s not infiltrating, that we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa,” Trump said.
“So we found out that Santa is good. Santa loves you. Santa loves Oklahoma, like I do,” the president added, before promising the children that “Santa is going to bring you the most beautiful doll house you’ve ever seen.”
Trump spoke as first lady Melania Trump also took calls nearby in front of a Christmas tree at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Trump also told Savannah, 8, of North Carolina, who wondered if Santa would get “mad” if he didn’t get cookies, that Saint Nick would “be very disappointed” because he has a “serious appetite.”
“You must be a high IQ person” Trump told another youngster who said he wanted an Amazon Kindle for Christmas — repurposing his frequent insult that political foes are ‘low IQ.”
A young boy from Pennsylvania, meanwhile, proudly to the president that he helped the 45th and 47th president gain his second term.
“I voted!” the boy said.
“I bet your mom voted properly,” replied the president.
Trump’s lighthearted calls follow a day of golfing at his nearby course and were placed ahead of evening remarks to military service members, to whom he touted his just-announced $1,776 Christmas bonuses. His plans for video calls with groups of troops failed due to IT issues, prompting Trump to joke, “I think that’s the enemy doing it” before proceeding instead to place private phone calls.
In his most famous Santa hotline exchange, Trump in 2018 asked a 7-year old if they believed in Santa.
“Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven it’s marginal, right?” Trump inquired in the instant classic.
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