The outgoing and incoming presidents delivered messages for the Christmas holiday on Wednesday.
In a post on the @POTUS presidential X account on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said: “For the last time as your president, it’s my honor to wish all of America a very Merry Christmas. My hope for our nation, today and always, is that we continue to seek the light of liberty and love, kindness and compassion, dignity and decency. May God bless you all.”
Biden also narrated a video tour of the White House Christmas decorations that was published on YouTube late on Christmas Eve, in which he urges Americans to set aside “all the noise and everything that divides us.”
“We’re here on this Earth to care for one another, to love one another,” Biden says in a voiceover as a camera pans past adorned evergreen trees and bedecked fireplaces inside the White House. “Too often we see each other as enemies, not as neighbors, not as fellow Americans,” he said.
Biden urged Americans to find a moment of “quiet reflection” to remind themselves to treat each other with dignity and respect, to “live in the light” and remember there was more to unite than divide Americans. “We’re truly blessed to live in this nation,” he said.
As the sun set on Dec. 25, the first night of Hanukkah also began, and to commemorate the day, the president shared a picture with First Lady Jill Biden, around the first-ever White House menorah.
“Two years ago, Jill and I introduced the first-ever White House Menorah made from historic wood sourced from the foundation,” Biden wrote on X. “As Hanukkah begins, it is displayed to make clear that the history of the Jewish life is woven into the fabric of America. Like this menorah, it’s permanent.”
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump published a mid-morning “Merry Christmas” message on Truth Social on Christmas Day with a photo of himself and his wife Melania, followed by over two dozen re-posts of articles or other social media posts that backed his political positions on topics including Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and his pursuit of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Later, Trump published a more lengthy “Merry Christmas” message that claimed Chinese soldiers were operating the Panama Canal and criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Biden, and Democrats.
“Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago),” his address on Truth Social began, adding that the United States was always expected to spend billions for repairs without getting a say in “anything.”
“Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60 percent,” Trump wrote.
Turning to the homefront, the president-elect then wished a Merry Christmas to the “Radical Left Lunatics,” who he said were trying to obstruct the nation’s court system and elections, and “are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the United States but, in particular, their Political Opponent, me.”
There was one group Trump refused to wish a Merry Christmas: the 37 federal death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by Biden on Dec. 23 and will now serve life in prison.
“To the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them … I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas … but, instead, will say, go to hell!” Trump wrote.
“We had the Greatest Election in the History of our Country,” he said. “A bright light is now shining over the U.S.A. and, in 26 days, we will, make America great again. Merry Christmas!”
Reuters and Epoch Times reporter T.J. Muscaro contributed to this report.