Nobody issues holiday greetings quite like former President Donald Trump.
(Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here. Check out More 19FortyFive Videos Here)
“I hope everyone, even the Fake News Media, is having a great Christmas,” the then-president tweeted on Christmas Day in 2018.
“Our Country is doing very well. We are securing our Borders, making great new Trade Deals, and bringing our Troops Back Home. We are finally putting America First. MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
At various times, Trump has tweeted about “the haters and losers,” often extending holiday greetings even to those he believes answer that description. He’s been doing it since at least 2014, prior to his running for president; he said at the time that “every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection. They cannot help the fact that they were born [expletive] up.”
This year’s Christmas greetings from Trump got a bit darker.
Writing this time on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump went a bit longer than he did back in his Twitter days.
“On this very cold but beautiful Christmas Day, look at our Nation NOW on the Southern Border compared to only a short time ago during the Trump Administration,” the former president said. “We had the most SECURE Border in our history, versus the ‘horror show’ that that is happening now, with record setting numbers of people, many of them hardened Criminals (including Killers, Human Traffickers and Drug Dealers), POURING INTO OUR COUNTRY at a rate the likes of which we have never seen before. The USA is dying from within!!!”
In a different post the day before, Trump had wished a “Merry Christmas to EVERYONE,” before going into a list of grievances more fit for Festivus.
Among those getting Christmas wishes from the 45th president were “Radical Left Marxists that are trying to destroy our Country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is illegally coercing & paying Social and LameStream Media to push for a mentally disabled Democrat over the Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump, and, of course, The Department of Injustice, which appointed a Special ‘Prosecutor’ who, together with his wife and family, HATES ‘Trump’ more than any other person on earth.”
The posts offered quite a few Trump trademarks, including inexplicable quotation marks, as well as factually questionable statements.
The part about the FBI “coercing and paying” social media appeared to reference one of the recent chapters of The Twitter Files, Elon Musk’s campaign to “expose” wrongdoing by the previous Twitter regime.
That is, however, not true. As explained by journalist Mike Masnick, “if the FBI is legally requesting information for an investigation under a number of different legal authorities, the companies receiving those requests can be reimbursed for fulfilling them.” This is a standard procedure for social media companies, and far from rare or controversial.
It is not clear whether Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department to make a determination about the investigations into Trump related to January 6 and the Mar-a-Lago documents affair, “HATES ‘Trump’ more than any other person on earth,” but he does have a reputation as a legal straight shooter.
Perhaps the biggest news in the Christmas Eve post is that Donald Trump is claiming to hold the powers of clairvoyance, which appears to be a first, for himself or any other president.
The Christmas Day post had received 9,102 “ReTruths” and “35,733” likes as of Tuesday morning. This shows the limited reach of Truth Social; that Christmas Day tweet in 2018 received 24,700 retweets and over 165,000 likes on Twitter.
President Biden’s own Christmas message to his social media followers was a bit more traditional and conventional.
“Jill and I wish you a very Merry Christmas. We hope you and your loved ones are surrounded by love, happiness, and cheer this holiday season,” the president tweeted just before noon on Christmas Day.
MORE: Putin Will Flip – Ukraine Is Getting Patriot Missiles
MORE: Could India and China Be Headed for War?
MORE: Can a Coup Takedown Putin for Good?
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
