President Donald Trump answers phone calls on Christmas Eve as he participates in the NORAD Santa tracker from the Mar-a-lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 24, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds – AFP / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short December 26, 2025 at 7:20am
President Donald Trump had the room laughing when he took a phone call on Christmas Eve from a child who told the president he did not want coal for Christmas.
That day the White House’s official Rapid Response 47 account on X posted a video of Trump participating in the 70th annual North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa Tracker.
Obviously, nobody wants coal for Christmas as the young man in the clip told the president, but Trump corrected him on how he referred to it as this is something he has consistently touted as part of his energy agenda during his first year back in office.
.@POTUS: “What would you like Santa to bring?”
KID: “Not coal!”@POTUS: “You mean ‘clean, beautiful coal.’”
🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/K15IqUMxzA
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 24, 2025
“What would you like Santa to bring?” Trump asked.
“Not coal,” was the reply.
“You mean clean, beautiful coal,” Trump told him, laughing as several people behind the camera did the same. “I had to do that, I’m sorry.
“Coal is clean and beautiful, please remember that, at all costs. But you don’t want clean beautiful coal, right?”
The moment was as Trumpian as any the public have been gifted since his entrance into the public arena.
Trump definitively loves coal as his executive order from April proves.
Using the same adjectives as he did in this phone call, that order was titled, “President Donald J. Trump Reinvigorates America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.”
Here, Trump ordered coal resources on federal lands to be identified while removing barriers to mining it and prioritized leasing coal leasing for that land.
Coal or otherwise, his policies are clearly working.
Gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 4.3 percent for July through September. Consumer spending – something that makes up 70 percent of economic activity – rose 3.5 percent over the third quarter.
Trump’s more practical energy policies – moving away from his predecessor’s green crusade – has undoubtedly renewed hope in many Americans who participate in this economy with confidence.
Trump is going into 2026 with many successes during his first year back in office. Although the president has not delivered on every promise made during his 2024 campaign, economic performance can make or break Republicans chances in next year’s midterm elections.
Their chances of success are higher when looking across the aisle.
Democrats still do not have a coherent message to mount a convincing opposition to the president’s agenda.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
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