CHRISTMAS under Donald Trump brought airstrikes abroad and political threats at home, as the United States president used the holiday to project a vision of power rooted less in peace than grievance, even as aides leaned into their Christian faith.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, he flooded his Truth Social feed with posts that ditched the usual holiday cheer.
Instead of goodwill to all, Trump announced military action against rebels in Nigeria and hurled insults at his enemies.
Trump said on Friday that the strikes, conducted the day before, had “decimated” rebel camps in northern Nigeria, describing the operation as a surprise blow delivered as a “Christmas present”.
In an interview with Politico, he said he had delayed the action until Thursday to catch militants off guard — hitting “every camp” involved.
The strikes, he said, were retaliation for a “slaughter of Christians” in the West African nation.
Then came a caustic Christmas greeting aimed at his political rivals, branding them “radical leftist scum”.
On Thursday, he dropped an even darker line: “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas.”
The cryptic warning appeared to hint at Democrats he believes will be exposed when files tied to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are all released.
The White House, by contrast, issued a traditional message later that day — heavy on scripture — signed by the president and First Lady Melania Trump.
The statement invoked God seven times, celebrating “the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” and praying for “God’s abiding love, divine mercy, and everlasting peace”.
Trump has long claimed credit for restoring “Merry Christmas” to public life, accusing his first-term predecessor Barack Obama of pushing “Happy Holidays” — a greeting seen as more inclusive of multiple faiths.
In reality, Obama regularly said “Merry Christmas”.
This year, though, Trump, 79, skipped formal worship entirely.
The official schedule shows he spent the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida without attending church.
Across the administration, Christmas messaging leaned hard into Christianity.
The Homeland Security Department urged Americans to “remember the miracle of Christ’s birth”, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a nativity scene and spoke of “the hope of Eternal Life through Christ”.
The Pentagon even hosted its first-ever Christmas Mass on Dec 17.
Religious language is nothing new in the politics of the United States — a country that calls itself “one nation under God”. But the First Amendment bars any official creed.
That hasn’t stopped Vice-President J.D. Vance from pushing Christian doctrine into every corner of policy, from diplomacy to immigration.
“A true Christian politics, it cannot just be about the protection of the unborn… It must be at the heart of our full understanding of government,” he told a recent rally organised by the conservative group Turning Point USA.
“We have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation,” Vance added. The crowd roared.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, offers a disciplined Christian nationalist vision.
But Trump’s version is more personal — and messianic.
In his January inauguration speech, he claimed God saved him from assassination so he could fulfil America’s destiny.
Since then, he has sold US$60 “God Bless The USA” Bibles, launched a White House Office of Faith under televangelist Paula White, and posted photos of himself praying at his desk, pastors hovering around him.
Trump, never known as a committed churchgoer, now speaks often of his own salvation.
“I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” he told Fox News in August, suggesting brokering peace in Ukraine might help.
At other moments, however, he has sounded far less confident.
“I hear I’m not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole,” he has said, again linking any improvement in his prospects to a potential peace deal in Ukraine.
His bleakest assessment came on Oct 15, when he said: “I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get me into heaven.”
The writer is from AFP
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
