Donald Trump claims he has brought Christmas back to the White House, but it was clear on Thursday night that nobody else got the memo. In fact, if anything, the holiday spirit in Washington is at an all-time low in the Trump era.
This was quite apparent during the president’s first official tree lighting as rows and rows of seats stood empty for the annual holiday event.
Picture from the ceremony via Steve Rudin of ABC7:
The National Tree Lighting ceremony was beautiful this evening – but hard not to notice the empty seats. #Christmas #DMV #USA pic.twitter.com/oKMrnnBekG
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— Steve Rudin ABC7 (@SteveRudinABC7) November 30, 2017
As Shareblue Senior Writer Oliver Willis noted on Twitter, there is something of a pattern that has developed when it comes to Trump’s events: a lack of people.
inauguration ceremony.
inauguration parade.
christmas tree lighting.
i’m sensing a theme with donald trump events. pic.twitter.com/DcYACwblUg— Oliver Willis (@owillis) December 1, 2017
Ultimately, Trump’s claim that there is a war on Christmas has always been a phony one. Each time he says that Christmas has been removed from our national vocabulary, particularly by the previous president, he is lying.
During his time in the White House, President Obama repeatedly uttered the phrase, “Merry Christmas” throughout the holiday season. This was well-documented by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes this week:
But even if we take Donald Trump at his word and play along with his fantasy that there is a war on Christmas, Thursday demonstrated quite perfectly that Donald Trump is losing it.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
