People Say Trump’s Call With a Kid Made Santa Sound Like a "Border Threat"

For seven decades, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has taken part in a festive tradition that dates back to 1955, where it tracks Santa as he travels the globe on Christmas Eve and gives updates on his whereabouts. It’s exciting for kids because, well, they get to see Santa traveling in real time.

Of course, with that excitement comes questions. To make the event even more magical, volunteers take calls from eager kids who want to know more about the tracking.

For Christmas 2025, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump decided to join in on the fun and take some of those calls themselves. During one call, Trump spoke with a young boy who was curious about why Santa was even being tracked by NORAD in the first place.

Trump’s response, however, surprised a few people, with it almost sounding like he was blending in a bit of immigration talk. Here’s the conversation and the reactions that followed.

While at his home in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach with his wife by his side on Christmas Eve, Trump took a call from a young boy genuinely interested in why Santa was being tracked. The kid asked, “Why does Santa have a tracker on him?”

And here was Trump’s reply: “Well, we track Santa all over the world, we want to make sure that Santa is being good… and Santa’s a very good person, we want to make sure he’s not infiltrated, that we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa. So, we found out that Santa’s good, Santa loves you, Santa loves Oklahoma like I do.” He also couldn’t help but point out that “Oklahoma was very good to me in the election,” and suggested to the child “don’t ever leave Oklahoma, okay.”

Now, there’s plenty to dissect here, which many people have already started doing. The first and most obvious thing is that Trump is suggesting Santa might be bad, but thankfully, he’s not, because we don’t want a bad Santa in our country, right? But doesn’t the story go that there’s only one Santa? And if Santa happened to be bad, how would that impact Christmas and the 1,000-year-old story he’s been included in?

Because, according to every story and script aimed at kids, he’s good and basically the only person who can come into your home and drop gifts while Mommy and Daddy are sleeping (because anyone else would be weird).

The sheer suggestion that Santa is being tracked to make sure he’s “good” was pretty left field coming from the President of the United States, because it’s almost like he’s opening the conversation that Santa could be bad or is coming into the U.S. to gain access to sensitive information. But again, he’s not, according to Trump.

The next thing to consider is Trump even using the word “infiltrated” in conversation with a child who could barely mouth the question out. His mom or caregiver had to step in and repeat what he was saying so Trump could understand him. So again, it almost took away from the magical moment by producing a response meant for adults when it was supposed to be for a child.

And third, with Trump using the words Santa, tracking, and infiltrated in the same sentence, it’s almost like he’s using immigration rhetoric, treating Santa as a foreign person (not a magical, mythical man) who we’re letting into the country but need to watch closely. While some might not have picked up on all of it during the call, which lasted just under a minute, most people seemed to collectively agree it wasn’t the right response.

People were pretty surprised by Trump’s response to a child calling in to learn more about why Santa was being tracked. One person agreed it leaned toward immigration rhetoric, writing on X (formerly Twitter), “Are you going to check Santa’s papers? Deport him maybe?” Another wrote, “Santa's magic isn't about surveillance,” while a third said, “This mfer talkin’ ’bout potentially deporting Santa.”

Overall, Trump’s response to that child didn’t go over too well with many. Hopefully, the other calls left out words like “infiltrated” and “bad Santa.”