Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
December 4, 2025
The President. Well, thank you very much, everybody. It is beautiful. Not too cold. There's no wind. We don't have to wear hats or anything.
This is a special time, and Melania and I are thrilled to wish everyone here tonight and Americans all across this land a very, very merry Christmas.
So is everybody ready to light the beautiful Christmas tree? Are you ready?
So the First Lady is going to do the honors, and we're going to do a countdown. We'll go from five to zero. Okay?
Five——
[At this point, the President led the audience in a countdown as follows.] Audience members. ——four, three, two, one!
The President. ——four, three, two, one!
[The First Lady lit the National Christmas Tree.] Good job, honey.
["Deck the Halls" was played.]
Well, thank you very much. And thank you, Melania. And it's a beautiful job they did on creating that tree. It's a beauty.
And let me also recognize Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Usha; as well as Secretaries Scott Bessent, Pete Hegseth; Attorney General Pam Bondi; Secretaries Doug Burgum and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; Administrator Kelly Loeffler; and their wonderful families. They're doing a fantastic job.
And I see out in the audience the "Great One," Wayne Gretzky, and Janet. Thank you very much, Wayne, for being here. He's used to this kind of weather.
Let's also express our gratitude to the great people of the National Park Service—they're incredible, the job they've done, as well as the unbelievable performers here tonight. You're going to see some incredible performers. And we have in the audience the Beach Boys. They're great.
During this holy season, Christians everywhere rejoice at the miracle in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago, when the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, came down from Heaven to be with us. [Applause] You're right. Full of grace and truth, He brought the gift of God's love into the world and the promise of salvation for every person and every nation.
And we just settled another war today—you saw that—with Rwanda and the Congo. It's been going on for 34 years. Millions of people killed. Could be 20 million. They don't know what the number is. And we just settled it today. That was a big one. We're very happy to announce it on this important day.
Tonight this beautiful evergreen tree glows bright on the dark and cold winter night and reminds us of the words of Gospel of John, "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." Beautiful words.
With the birth of Jesus, human history turned from night to day. His Word and his example call us to love one another, to serve one another, and to honor the sacred truth that every child is specially made in the image of God.
For 250 years—think of it: Our country is 250 years. This is a big year. I'm so happy that our Presidency was delayed. [Laughter] Otherwise, I'd be sitting home watching television, not being invited. I would be extremely upset. [Laughter]
And remember, we have not only the 250 years, but we have—this is a big one—we have the World Cup, and we have the Olympics coming up, all within this 4-year period. See, if they didn't rig the election, I would have been sitting because—can you imagine? I wouldn't have any of them, and I probably wouldn't have been invited. I would have been very upset by that. [Laughter]
But America has stood tall, in part because millions of our citizens have heeded that call, and the faith and service of Christians have been essential parts of America's strength from the very, very beginning. Incredible. We love the Christians. We love all religions.
And by the way, religion is coming back to the U.S.A.—you see that—very strongly.
So this Christmas season, let me say thank you to everyone who serves the needy and lifts up the communities, inspired by faith. Thank you to the police, law enforcement officers, first responders, ICE, and Border Patrol agents, who risk their lives every day to defend the innocent, protect the good, and keep the evil and danger at bay.
And thank you to the men and women of the United States military, including the brave heroes of our National Guard here in Washington, DC, where we've set a record for lack of crime in 28 years. So I just want to say we have a great—a great place.
And I want to pay my highest respects to those two great guardsmen. You know who I'm talking about. They paid, in one case, the ultimate—and the other, Andrew, is getting better. Sarah, unfortunately, is watching from a high—watching from Heaven. Her parents are so incredible. And Andrew is, hopefully, getting better. He hit—he got hit hard, defending us.
And I just want to pay my respects to them. Two incredible people. Unbelievable people.
I spoke with the parents and met the parents today—met the parents of Andrew. And they have spirit, and they love our country so much, you wouldn't believe.
But as a nation, we have much to be grateful for on this holiday season. Our border is secure.
Our spirit is restored. Most secure border we've ever had in the history of our country. Seven months, and nobody has come in illegally into our country. Nobody. Not one.
Our economy is thriving, inflation has stopped, our Nation is strong, and America is back, bigger and better, stronger—better than ever before. Think of it.
And we're making peace all over the world. We're settling wars at levels that nobody's ever seen before. Eight of them. We're looking for one more—that's Russia-Ukraine—if that's possible. And I think we'll get there eventually.
Last week, 8,000 soldiers killed. Last month, they had 27,000 soldiers needlessly killed. We got to get that stopped. We're working very hard on it.
Just over 1 year ago, our country was in very, very serious trouble. The King of Saudi Arabia said to me, very strongly: "Sir, 1 year ago, your country was dead. Now you have the strongest and hottest country anywhere in the world." Can you imagine? We did this in 10 months. What a difference.
And it's true. Everybody feels that, and all leaders feel that.
So, as we prepare to celebrate the miracle of Christmas, we thank God for his many blessings. And together, we rejoice at the true source of greatness, happiness, and strength. The good news is the glorious nights 2,000 years ago. Think of it: 2,000 years ago. It was indeed a glorious night.
So I want to thank everybody here. I want to pay my deepest respect and love to all of our great citizens, like 350 million people. We love them all. Whether you like them or not, we love them all. We want to take care of everybody. We have to take care of everybody in our country.
I want to wish everybody a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. And have a good time, and you're going to see some great entertainment.
Thank you very much, everybody. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy New Year. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 6:29 p.m. on the Ellipse at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to former National Hockey League center Wayne Gretzky and his wife Janet; Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, USA, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, USAF, members of the West Virginia National Guard, who were shot in an ambush-style attack during a patrol near the White House in Washington, DC, on November 26; Melody and Jason Wolfe, parents, of Staff Sgt. Wolfe; and Evalea and Gary Beckstrom, parents of Spc. Beckstrom, who died from her injuries on November 27; and King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on December 5.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : National Christmas Tree lighting. Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Beckstrom, Evalea; Beckstrom, Gary; Bessent, Scott K.H.; Bondi, Pamela J.; Burgum, Douglas J.; Gretzky, Janet; Gretzky, Wayne; Hegseth, Peter B.; Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.; Loeffler, Kelly L.; Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, King; Trump, Melania; Vance, James D. "J.D."; Vance, Usha Chilukuri; Wolfe, Andrew; Wolfe, Jason; Wolfe, Melody.
Subjects: America's 250th birthday celebration; Attorney General; Border security; California, 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles; Christmas; Congo, Democratic Republic of the, relations with Rwanda; District of Columbia, law enforcement improvement efforts; District of Columbia, shooting of National Guard servicemembers near White House; Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup; Law enforcement officers, service and dedication; National Guard; National Park Service; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Rwanda, relations with Democratic Republic of the Congo; Saudi Arabia, King; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of the Interior; Secretary of the Treasury; Secretary of War; Small Business Administration; U.S. Border Patrol; U.S. diplomatic efforts, expansion; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes; Vice President.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501161.