President Donald Trump had a hilarious response to a child about NORAD’s Santa-tracking tradition while he and First Lady Melania Trump took calls from the White House on Christmas Eve.
The tradition of U.S. presidents taking calls from children on Christmas Eve is tied to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Tracks Santa program, which began in 1955. That year, a misprinted phone number in a Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement directed children to call the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) operations center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, instead of Santa Claus.
Colonel Harry Shoup, the duty officer, decided to play along and instructed his staff to provide Santa’s location to callers, turning it into an annual event. When NORAD was formed in 1958, it inherited and expanded the program, which now includes a website, app, and hotline (1-877-HI-NORAD) where volunteers and dignitaries answer millions of inquiries about Santa’s global journey each December 24.
President Donald Trump first participated in this tradition during his initial term in office, starting in 2017. He and First Lady Melania Trump took calls remotely from the White House or Mar-a-Lago, continuing in 2018 and 2019.
His calls often involve lighthearted banter, predictions about gifts, and particularly memorable call about belief in Santa Claus on in 2018.
This Christmas was no different, as the president had a number of hilarious exchanges during the annual call period. When one child stated that she didn’t want coal, Trump joked that his administration is working to produce “clean, beautiful coal.”
Another child stated that he loved President Trump, to which the president joked that his mother must have “voted properly.”
When one caller said he was from Pennsylvania, Trump remarked that he had a particular soft spot for Pennsylvania. “We won Pennsylvania, actually, 3 TIMES! We won it in a LANDSLIDE. So, I love Pennsylvania!”
Trump also made lighthearted jokes about Santa’s hefty build, stating that Old Saint Nick has a “serious appetite,” and told another child that he sounded like a “high-IQ person” after they said they wanted a Kindle for Christmas.
The most viral response came during a question about the NORAD Santa tracker, when a child’s mother asked why Santa needed to be tracked in the first place.
““We need to track Santa. Santa is good. We need to make sure he’s not infiltrating our country. We need to make sure he’s not a bad Santa,” the president joked, adding that he loved the child’s home state of Oklahoma.
The NORAD Tracks Santa program simulates real-time tracking of Santa’s sleigh using radar, satellites, and fighter jets, providing updates to children worldwide. On Christmas Eve, starting around 4 a.m. MST, a call center fields inquiries from kids asking about Santa’s current location, arrival times, or gift deliveries.
Presidents and First Ladies have been joining in on the calls since former First Lady Michelle Obama first participated in 2010.
