When 7-year-old Collman Lloyd called the NORAD hotline to track Santa’s whereabouts on Christmas Eve, she got more than she bargained for, which is to say that President Trump picked up her call and then strongly implied that Santa is, in fact, not real. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” he asked the child. “Because at 7, it’s marginal, right?”
But despite widespread reports that the president had ruined the holiday for her, Collman took the call in stride, and still believes in Santa (she didn’t know what “marginal” meant). “I was like, ‘Wow.’ I was shocked,” she told the Post and Courier about speaking to the Trump. The president, she assumed, “has a lot to do on the night of Christmas Eve.” The experience, she added, “wasn’t really (nerve-wracking), I just had to think of what the truth was.” Good advice for the president, whether for phone calls or tweeting, TBH.
The president played it safer with other kids; according to CNN, he asked another child, “What’s Santa going to get you for Christmas?” and didn’t throw any SAT words into the mix. And though Trump never told Collman where exactly Santa was located, using the radar system NORAD uses every year to help kids track their presents, she still cashed out with an American Girl doll.
She still has some residual questions for the president, whose holiday card with First Lady Melania was devoid of both blood trees and Barron Trump. “Most people know this question: I would like to ask if he has any kids. I’ve honestly never heard of them or seen any of them so I was wondering,” Collman asked.
Imagine a world in which you don’t know Donald Trump Jr. exists. Now imagine a world in which you suddenly find out he does. Collman, I am so sorry.
