Melania Trump dubbed «the Christmas Grinch» after walking out of tree ceremony

The long-running controversy over Melania Trump's apparent lack of enthusiasm for Christmas gained a new chapter on November 24, when she was seen leaving the traditional arrival ceremony for the White House Christmas tree after less than three minutes.

Tasked with personally welcoming the tree selected for Christmas 2025 at the North Portico – and doing so without her husband, the president, at her side – the first lady briefly greeted the carriage and admired the fir before quickly retreating back inside, reigniting debate over her holiday role.

A leaked phone call

Melania Trump's troubled relationship with Christmas in the public eye really dates back to a secretly recorded phone call from the summer of 2018, in which she vented to her then-advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff about having to plan the White House holiday décor while the administration was under fire for separating migrant families at the southern border.

In the audio, later released in October 2020 and aired by CNN, Melania can be heard saying that she was «working my ass off on the Christmas stuff» and asking «who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations?» before complaining that critics only raised concerns about separated children when she tried to highlight her holiday work.

Those comments landed on top of already polarizing reactions to her décor choices, like the stark white, branch-lined colonnade in 2017 and the blood-red conical trees of 2018, which drew mockery and horror-movie memes. Publicly, she defended her work, insisting the decorations were being unfairly judged. Speaking about the red trees, she said: «We are in 21st century, and everybody has different taste. I think they look fantastic. I hope everybody will come over and visit it.»

Over time, the contrast between her on-camera defense of Christmas décor and the leaked «who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff» tape helped cement her image as a kind of Christmas Grinch in U.S. political culture, with the quote resurfacing in coverage and on social media almost every holiday season.

A quick photo-op

Melania Trump's welcome of the 2025 White House Christmas tree lasted less than three minutes and looked more like a quick photo-op than a ceremony.

She walked out alone to the North Portico, briefly greeted the carriage drivers with polite small talk, posed a few seconds beside the tree for photographers, then turned around and went straight back inside without any real remarks or interaction beyond the bare minimum for the cameras.

Melania's holiday business

Adding to the irony, Melania Trump now markets her own line of Christmas ornaments and holiday decorations, selling limited-edition pieces like the «American Star» for about 90 dollars as part of her patriotic 250 Collection through the USA Memorabilia site, where other designs in the set typically range from roughly 75 to 90 dollars each.