President Donald Trump’s light-hearted call with a child on Christmas Eve has drawn comparisons with the Saturday Night Live (SNL) cold open featuring a parody “Christmas message” from Trump, hitting a similar tone and note about Santa Claus and immigration.
“We want to make sure that he’s not infiltrated, that we’re not infiltrating our country with a bad Santa,” the president told the child, while SNL‘s James Austin Johnson—now famous for his Trump impression—said: “Arctic immigrants are coming in through our chimneys and stealing our milk and cookies.”
Why It Matters
The long-running sketch comedy show has leaned heavy on political satire in its opening sketches, hitting various figures across the administration on the news of the day, and none more so than Trump.
The holiday connection with the president’s immigration policy—which has seen the largest deportation operation in United States history—may have been an obvious choice, but its close parallels to real life once again highlights the sentiment among some Americans that real life has become too close to parody.
What To Know
Trump took part in the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) calls, in which children can call in and ask questions about Santa’s location as he travels around the world to deliver presents.
NORAD has tracked Santa’s movements for 70 years after an officer answered a phone call from a child and assured them Santa Claus was on schedule and would deliver presents on time. The agency uses the same radars to track Santa that are used to track possible missile launches.
Trump sat by a Christmas tree in Mar-a-Lago and participated in tracking Santa, telling a child that the U.S. tracks Santa “all over the world.”
Trump kept the conversation light-hearted but couldn’t resist making an election comment, telling the child—who called from Oklahoma—that the state was “very good to me in the election, so I love Oklahoma” and told the child “don’t leave Oklahoma, OK?”
Journalist Ahmed Baba noted the similarity between Trump’s real-life interaction with the child and the SNL bit, writing on X that the president “just goes ahead and does the bit. Idk what’s real anymore man.”
Others simply reposted the SNL cold open sketch alongside a selected quote from the president’s real-life calls, or vice versa, to highlight the comparison and similarity.
In another call with a child from Pennsylvania, Trump talked about how “we won Pennsylvania … three times … in a landslide!” and praised the child’s mom for “voting properly.”
“We did so well there, so I appreciate it, mom,” Trump said. “Pennsylvania’s a great place.”
And in another call, in which the president at least acknowledged he felt he “had to” make the joke, Trump told a child that while he may not want coal, coal was “clean and beautiful,” laughing at the comment.
What People Are Saying
Right-wing independent journalist Laura Loomer on X: “President Trump‘ is probably the best grandpa. His grandkids are very lucky. How can anyone hate Trump? He is such a good man!”
Conservative activist Nick Sortor on X, in part: “LMAO! A child just asked President Trump why NORAD is tracking Santa, and his answer was VERY Trump.”
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