Lighting the White House Christmas tree is one of those feel-good ceremonial duties that is almost impossible for a president to screw up. That is, until Donald Trump lit the White House Christmas tree in 2025.
Lighting the tree usually involves the president standing there and talking about how Christmas brings us all together, and there are things that might come out of a Hallmark Christmas movie or two.
It’s a rather light-hearted moment and another milestone on the way to the end of the political year.
All of this was true until the deteriorating version of Donald Trump took the stage.
On the same day Trump told reporters:
I was with a gentleman, the future king of Saudi Arabia, and you’ve heard me say this a few times, but two months ago when I was there, he said, uh, and actually Qatar is represented today and your UAE is represented and your leader said the exact same thing, different words, but the exact same thing that a year ago they thought our country was dead.
Trump was in Saudi Arabia almost seven months ago, and MBS was in the White House two weeks ago, not two months ago, so Trump seems to have no sense of time or what is going on.
Someone decided it was a great idea to let this almost 80 year old man out after dark and have him light the White House Christmas tree.
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