The Trump family is celebrating another Christmas at the President’s enchanting Mar-a-Lago estate.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, President Donald Trump‘s daughter-in-law and Fox News host Lara Trump pulled back the curtain on the family festivities, including what gifts may be circulated and the special recipes on offer.
But how does anyone possibly buy a gift for the most powerful man in the world?
That, Lara Trump puts it, is ‘always a conundrum.’
The answer, at least recently, has been to focus on more touching effects.
‘We get a framed photo, and so if you look behind him in the Oval Office on his desk, he does have a lot of framed photos,’ she explained. ‘All of those pictures there have been given to him by us and the family over the course of many years.’
‘The one that I think we gave him, maybe last year, was a framed photo of his mom, and he’s got that always right behind him on the desk.’
Naturally, the next question is what does the billionaire real estate mogul turned president gift to his family? During his first term, the president gave out ornaments, Lara Trump shared, adding they were designed with Melania Trump’s input.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump (pictured on Christmas Eve in 2019 at Mar-a-Lago) are expected to celebrate Christmas at their Florida home
Tiffany and Lara Trump are pictured at the president’s inauguration this year. Lara Trump told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview all about the Trump family’s Christmas traditions
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania in their annual Christmas photo
The many young children in the Trump family, meanwhile, prefer grandpa’s hidden candy stash over the tree decorations – especially because he maintains a healthy helping of king-sized, or shall we say presidential, candy bars ready for the taking despite mom or dad’s objections.
‘He’s kind of famous for the candy bowl in his office,’ the Fox News host shared. ‘Sometimes it’s a full-size candy bar situation. There’s always Starbursts in there.’
That tradition goes beyond Christmas. There are reportedly stashes of pink and red Starbursts – the president’s favorites – tucked inside executive’s fleet of transportation, from Air Force One and Marine One to his personal Trump Force One, Lara said.
The Christmas agenda in the Trump household, however, is remarkably ordinary.
‘Christmas Eve is usually a church service and dinner,’ Lara said. The family typically attends Bethesda-by-the-Sea, an Episcopal church just minutes from Mar-a-Lago where the president and Melania were married.
Shortly after dawn on Christmas morning, and a highly-anticipated visit from Santa, frantic excitement among the little ones begins as they rush to open presents under the tree.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump speak on the phone with children as they track Santa Claus with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, on Christmas Eve in the State Dining Room of the White House in 2018
President Trump at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office in January. A picture of his mother can be seen on the right side of the table behind him. Lara Trump says it was a Christmas gift, as are many of the framed pictures on that table
Group portrait of, left to right, Donald Trump, Barron Trump and Santa Claus on Christmas Day at the Mar-a-Lago estate
All the Trump children maintain residences in Jupiter, Florida, just up the road from their father’s residence in Palm Beach, and will begin Christmas morning separately before coming together later.
Like any big American family celebrating Christmas, there’s, of course, implied chaos.
‘Christmas morning is a little challenging. You know, Santa shows up and he’s got all the gifts at everybody’s particular house … We’re all kind of in our own immediate homes there on Christmas morning and after we gather post-chaos of opening gifts,’ Lara said.
Soon, they are ready to go to grandpa’s to exchange even more presents. Barron Trump, 19, presumably, will be with his parents.
The holiday is perhaps the sole annual occasion where extended family gets together and just spends time with one another, Lara explained.
The president will likely make a flurry of calls to world leaders. But first, he will phone his closest family members.
‘I think first and foremost, to the family members who aren’t physically with us on Christmas, which, you know, maybe like his sister, Elizabeth, I’m not sure if she’s gonna make it down,’ Lara said. ‘She’s getting a little bit older. It’s harder for her to travel.’
She added: ‘He’s got a list of other folks who, politically, he wants to make sure he connects with.’
The celebration is drastically different from how it used to be, and the family – a decade into their patriarch’s pouncing into politics – is prone to being quarantined on Christmas.
The Trump family typically attends church on Christmas Eve at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. The Trump kids love the candlelight vigil and Christmas songs, Lara said
Ivanka and Jared Kushner celebrating the holidays
In the past, the family would gather in the more ‘intimate’ Mar-a-Lago living room, where some guests, along with the Trumps, were able to relax and enjoy the holiday.
Sometimes the receptions are in the ballroom, a setting fit to host up to 700 guests.
‘It has grown into such a monster now,’ the president’s daughter-in-law remarked.
‘We kind of have to be like roped off as a family, which is a little bit different holiday situation,’ she said of the family’s recent Mar-a-Lago receptions. Though this year the family is returning to the cherished living room for their Christmas celebrations.
Last year, for example, Elon Musk and his mother, Maye Musk, joined the Trump family for Christmas dinner.
The candlelight vigil and requisite hymns are a favorite of the youngest Trump children, who Lara says ‘know all the songs.’
For these Trump tots, the magic of Christmas and its patron saint, Santa, not to be confused with namesake Jesus Christ, is still alive and well. Though Lara couldn’t recall when Barron lost faith in the chimney-crawling character.
No family gathering is complete without a delicious family recipe, and the Fox News host, who went to culinary school, said she dutifully provides a chocolate peppermint trifle every year. It’s always ‘destroyed’ by the end of the night, she said.
Finally, the night concludes with a family tradition that dates back to Fred Trump, the president’s businessman father, who first forayed into real estate.
The president will conclude the family dinner by slamming his hands down on the table and saying ‘Well, that was Christmas.’
