United States President Donald Trump faced criticism and ridicule on social media after he asked a seven-year-old on Christmas Eve whether he still believed in Santa Claus. Trump, along with his wife Melania Trump, were taking calls from children keen to locate Santa ahead of the festival.
The Santa programme by the North American Aerospace Defense Command has been a tradition after a child mistakenly called the command in 1955 asking to speak to Santa. The defense command claims to track Santa’s journey across the globe.
The Trumps took calls from anxious children across the country to help them locate Santa. In one conversation with seven-year-old Coleman, Trump asked, “Are you still a believer in Santa?” He listened to the caller for a moment before adding: “Because at seven, it is marginal, right?”
This year, the programme came amid a partial government shutdown in the US after Congress and the White House failed to agree on a spending bill that included Trump’s demands for $5.7 billion for a wall along the Mexico border. This is the first time in 40 years that the US government has closed three times in a year. NORAD on Friday had said it would continue the tradition as it is run by volunteers using pre-approved funding.
This was the first time the president was seen in public since the shutdown. Trump’s question faced criticism on social media.
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