Trump still furious about criticism of Melania’s Christmas decorations
‘I remember she made these magnificent red trees and the media said, ‘Oh, that’s terrible,’ Trump says
Former President Donald Trump is still annoyed that former First Lady Melania Trump’s White House Christmas decorations were widely mocked.
Mr Trump was speaking at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas when he slammed the media for criticising Ms Trump’s decorations.
“I have to just start by wishing everybody a very, very merry Christmas,” Mr Trump said, adding that Ms Trump was “loved by everybody” but that she “didn’t exactly get a fair shake”.
“She would make the most beautiful Christmas decorations,” Mr Trump said. “And I remember she made these magnificent red trees and the media said, ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’ I said, ‘Honey, next time, try white.’”
“She made magnificent, remember, the most beautiful you’ve ever seen, white trees? And they said, ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’ I said the next time, let’s do it more traditional. Let’s go with green,” Mr Trump added.
“We went with beautiful green trees, and they said: ‘Why wouldn’t you make them white like they used to be?’ But I’ll tell you what, she’s loved all over, and she’s got a tremendous heart, and she says hello,” he said.
Ms Trump went for white branches instead of Christmas trees in parts of the White House in 2017.
In 2018, her red trees were panned for appearing to be covered in blood.
Ms Trump’s Christmas spirit was questioned last year when she was heard on a leaked recording complaining about having to organise the decorations. The conversation was recorded in 2018 by a friend of the first lady, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.
“I’m working ... my ass off at Christmas stuff that you know, who gives a f**k about Christmas stuff and decoration?” Ms Trump can be heard saying. “But I need to do it, right? Correct?”
“OK, and then I do it, and I say that I’m working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that, they were separated?’ Give me a f**king break,” she added, likely referring to a visit to the southern border she made to see children who had been separated from their parents.
She wore a jacket saying “I don’t really care, do u?” during the visit.
Mr Trump recently claimed that the reason Americans are able to say “Merry Christmas” to each other is that he fought back against the “woke” and “crazy people” who wanted the use of the phrase to end.
The former president was speaking to former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on the rightwing network Newsmax when Mr Huckabee claimed that for a “long period,” people “quit saying ‘Merry Christmas’”.
“It was all ‘happy holidays.’ You deliberately changed that and openly said, ‘Merry Christmas — we’re going to say it again,’” Mr Huckabee said.
“That was part of my campaign,” Mr Trump said. “The country had started with this ‘woke,’ I guess, a little bit before that. And it was embarrassing for stores to say ‘Merry Christmas’.”
“You’d see these big chains — they want your money, but they don’t want to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ And they’d use reds and they’d use whites and snow, but they wouldn’t say ‘Christmas,’” he added.
“When I started campaigning, I said: ‘You’re going to say Merry Christmas again.’ And now people are saying it,” Mr Trump said.
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