President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump spoke with several children on Christmas Eve as Santa Claus made his rounds across the globe, praising "clean, beautiful coal" and referring to one child as a "high-IQ person."
The pair joined the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker hotline from Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where they fielded calls from kids about what they hoped St. Nick would bring them for Christmas.
One child spoke to Trump about wanting a Kindle, the e-reader designed and marketed by Amazon.
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"That's pretty good. You must be a high-IQ person. We need more high-IQ people in the country," he replied.
One 8-year-old North Carolina girl asked if Santa would be upset if she didn't leave him cookies.
"I think he won't get mad, but I think he'll be very disappointed," said Trump. "Santa tends to be a little on the cherubic side."
Trump asked one child in Kansas for a Christmas wish.
"Um, not coal," the child replied.
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"Not coal. No, you don’t want coal. You mean clean, beautiful coal. I had to do that, I’m sorry," Trump said.
"No, coal is clean and beautiful. Please remember that at all costs," he added. "But you don’t want clean, beautiful coal, right? What would you like?"
Trump has frequently referred to coal as "clean" and "beautiful" in an effort to boost its use.
During a call with a child in Oklahoma, he said he was fond of the state, which he won in the 2024 presidential election.
"Santa loves you. Santa loves Oklahoma like I do. You know, Oklahoma was very good to me in the election. So, I love Oklahoma. Don’t ever leave Oklahoma, OK?" he said.
During the same call, Trump talked about tracking Santa.
"We track Santa all over the world. ... We want to make sure that he's not infiltrated — that we're not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa," he said. "We found that Santa is Good!"