Christmas Eve found President Donald Trump in good humor, sitting in his Mar-a-Lago home and chatting with children on the phone about Santa Claus’ whereabouts as NORAD tracked his sleigh.
“Nice, right?” he told reporters after taking a call. “Could do this all day long.”
The festive mood soured later in the day when Trump delivered a Christmas message that included a taunt aimed at “Radical Left Scum,” who, he wrote, are bent on destroying the country.
After midnight, the holiday spirit took another partisan political turn. The president posted or reposted more than 100 times on his Truth Social website, in many cases amplifying messages disparaging perceived political foes.
As Christmas Day broke, the president made clear he is still captivated by his loss to Joe Biden in 2020.
He reposted one message that called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure “accountability” by prosecuting former Democratic President Barack Obama over the election.
He also shared a video from Colton Moore, a Georgia state senator running for the congressional seat being vacated by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“You know, Donald Trump was right the entire time,” Moore said in the video. “The election in 2020 was stolen.” He went on to say that “people need to be arrested and tried for treason — a lot of them.”
No evidence has emerged of wrongdoing on a scale that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election, though Trump said in June he wants a special prosecutor to investigate what happened.
With more than 11 million followers on Truth Social, Trump reposted messages involving familiar foils. Some called for getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by Obama 15 years ago (last week, the Republican-led House and Senate left town for the new year without a health care deal that will prevent insurance premiums from rising for millions of Americans).
In his feed, Trump drew attention to a post depicting California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential race, as a socialist.
Another of his reposts centered on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s growing wealth during her time in Congress. The post Trump shared suggested, without evidence, that she should go to prison for insider trading. (Sitting behind Trump, Pelosi famously tore up a copy of his State of the Union address after he finished speaking in 2020.)
Trump shared several posts attacking Somali immigrants. He took aim specifically at Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat born in Somalia, reposting a video questioning her U.S. citizenship and writing, “Throw her out of the U.S., Now!” The president has made a flurry of disparaging remarks about Somali immigrants in recent weeks.
Trump also used his feed to promote economic policies that have faced criticism. Polls show that he’s lost ground with voters who are relying on him to make groceries, utilities and other necessities more affordable. At 1:15 a.m., he reposted a Fox News video in which a guest credited Trump’s stewardship of the economy with the rapid 4.3% growth in gross domestic product during the third quarter.
The White House did not respond to an inquiry Thursday about whether it was Trump or one of his aides who reposted all the messages.
Trump singled out a video from Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which he rattled off various peace deals that the president said he reached since taking office in January. Trump has said he deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded in October 2026. The deals that Rubio outlined form the basis of Trump’s candidacy for the prize, which Obama and three other presidents have won.
Rubio said in the video that Trump stopped a looming war between India and Pakistan, though India has disputed the claim. Of the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, Rubio said, “We got that peace deal put in place.”
Though the two neighboring countries had reached a ceasefire, more than two weeks of border clashes have resulted in 86 deaths.
Rubio, who feuded with Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, called his boss “the best president we’ve ever had.”
For Trump, sprinkling partisan grievance into holiday cheer has become something of a tradition.
As president-elect during Thanksgiving last year, he offered good wishes to everyone, even the “Radical Left Lunatics.”
