White House Christmas tree arrives by horse-drawn carriage
First Lady Melania Trump received the White House Christmas tree in a horse-drawn carriage.
- The holiday season has officially begun at the White House with the arrival of the Christmas tree and the presidential pardon of the turkey.
- President Trump and the first lady will spend Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
The White House Christmas tree has arrived. Two lucky turkeys were pardoned by the president just before Thanksgiving. It’s the first official holiday season of President Donald Trump’s second term.
According to President Trump’s schedule, he will be heading to Palm Beach, Florida, for Thanksgiving with the first lady. On his days off, he plans to participate in calls with military personnel.
Trump has visited Mar-a-Lago frequently on weekends since mid-October. President Trump also visited Mar-a-Lago during his first Christmas, with the exception of the 2018 holiday when the government was shut down.
President Melania Trump is scheduled to reveal the White House’s Christmas design and decorations to the media on December 1st, but what will Christmas at Mar-a-Lago look like? Please take a look:
Mar-a-Lago on vacation: see photos
First Lady Melania Trump sparks controversy during vacation during first term
Christmas at the White House caused controversy for the first lady of President Donald Trump’s first term.
First up is the 2018 red Christmas tree.
And Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, author of the book Melania and Me, secretly recorded a conversation with Melania Trump in which she complained about her role promoting the White House on Christmas, while being criticized for not doing more meaningful work, CNN reported in 2020.
“I’m (expletive) about Christmas. Who’s going to (expletive) about Christmas and decorating? But I have to do it, right?” the first lady said in the recording. “And I say I’m doing it, working for Christmas, planning for Christmas… and they say, ‘What happens to the kids who are separated?’ Give me a break. ”
Wolkoff and the first lady were friends. The Justice Department during President Trump’s first term sued Wolkoff over the revealing memoir, but the case was dropped in 2021. In response to the recording, the first lady’s office said there was no way to know whether the recording had been edited and accused Wolkoff of recording it “for herself and her despicable book promotion.”
Contributed by Maria Puente, Bryan Alexander, Barbara VanDenburgh, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact KCrowley@usatodayco.com. follow her X (Twitter), blue sky and TikTok.
