31 December 2023 , 16:06
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Donald Trump says Americans should thank him that they are still able to say “Merry Christmas ”.
The disgraced former president said in an interview with pro-Trump news channel Newsmax that people were forced to “quit saying Merry Christmas ” for a “long period” - but that he fought for the return of the old saying. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee - who ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries - said to Trump: "It was all 'happy holidays.' You deliberately changed that and openly said, 'merry Christmas — we're going to say it again’.”
"That was part of my campaign,” boasted Trump proudly in the cushy interview. “The country had started with this 'woke,' I guess, a little bit before that. And it was embarrassing for stores to say 'merry Christmas’.”
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Trump says reintroducing the phrase was a "big part of what he was doing" (Getty Images)Trump says the big high street chains wanted the public’s money but didn’t want to say “merry christmas”. He added: “They'd use reds and they'd use whites and snow, but they wouldn't say 'Christmas’.”
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But it was Trump to the rescue for the US, as he battled his way to become president in 2016 and once again permitted the nation to say the festive phrase - according to his account. "When I started campaigning, I said: 'You're going to say merry Christmas again.' And now people are saying it,” Trump said.
The former president believes it didn’t just stop at saying ‘merry Christmas’, but Americans were even restricted in saying names such as “George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson” as they were being “obliterated because of craziness”.
Trump says he ran parts of his campaign on promising Americans would once again be allowed to say "merry Christmas" (SIPA USA/PA Images)"But they are saying 'merry Christmas' again,” Trump continued. “That was a big part of what I was doing. I would say it all the time during that period, that we want them to say 'merry Christmas’. Don't shop at stores that don't say 'merry Christmas,' and I'll tell you we brought it back very quickly."
"America loves Christmas. Whether you're Muslim, whether you're Christian, whether you're Jewish — everyone loves Christmas," he added according to Business Insider. "And they say 'merry Christmas' — until these crazy people came along and they wanted to stop it along with everything else."
Starbucks' decision regarding whether to say “merry Christmas” to customers became a hot topic for conservatives who have latched onto a ‘war on christmas’ narrative as one of the defining issues of our times. Bill O'Reilly, a former Fox News personality, first floated the idea of a “war on christmas” way back in 2004.
But it appears Trump himself is something of a hypocrite, with the Washington Post revealing in 2017 that up until 2011 Trump himself had avoided using the phrase “merry Christmas”, for example when he tweeted on December 23, 2010: “Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday season!” Three years later, on December 19, 2023, he said: “Young Entrepreneurs – the Holiday season is here but that is no excuse not to stay on top of your business prospects. Focus!”