Trump Said This Might Be Our Last Merry Christmas

This year felt heavier than most, but we still found ways to hold each other up. And for that, I’m feeling especially grateful tonight. I had a peaceful Christmas with my family, and I don’t take that for granted. We were surrounded by people who share the same heartbreak over what’s happening to this country, and who are still willing to speak the truth about it. There was no tension. No silence pretending to be peace. None of us had to act like things are fine when they so clearly are not. Just a quiet understanding that something sacred is being damaged and that pretending otherwise would be its own kind of betrayal. And still, we found a way to celebrate what remains. To gather around what we still have. And to hope, truly hope, that next year we take back what was lost. And there was laughter too. The kind that comes from knowing you’re all on the same page. There were funny gifts, including a roll of toilet paper with the president’s face on it, which, in any other year, might’ve felt a little crude. But this year? It felt oddly appropriate. Maybe even cathartic.

I avoided the news for most of the day. It’s something I haven’t done once in the past year, not even for a holiday. But today, I wanted a break. A few hours where the weight of it all didn’t follow me into every room. Still, by evening, I checked. And when I saw Trump’s post on Truth Social, when I read what he had ordered, I wasn’t surprised at all.

On Christmas Day, Donald Trump announced that the United States had launched airstrikes against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria. The administration claimed these strikes had been planned for months, positioned them as retaliation for extremist attacks on Christian communities, and described them as “powerful and deadly.” U.S. Africa Command said the operation was conducted at the request of Nigeria and confirmed that multiple ISIS fighters were killed, though no specific details were released about targets, civilian casualties, or the broader impact. Intelligence flights had reportedly been operating in the area since late November, amid a conflict that has already killed thousands and displaced millions. Nigerian officials reiterated that both Christians and Muslims have been victims of extremist violence and made a point to restate their sovereignty. Still, the U.S. announced a new joint security task force, and Trump’s self-declared “Secretary of War”, Pete Hegseth, publicly thanked Nigeria for its cooperation.

What made this moment different was not only the military action itself, but the way it was announced. Trump chose to declare it on Christmas, and he did so in a post on his state propaganda channel, Truth Social, that read in full:

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries! I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper. May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues. DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”

That was the President of the United States speaking on Christmas Day. And we need to be clear about what this is. When a president orders airstrikes on foreign soil, that is war. The absence of a formal declaration does not change the reality on the ground. Bombs do not become symbolic because the language is vague. And timing matters. Choosing Christmas to announce military violence, while wrapping it explicitly in religious language, is not incidental. It is deliberate. It is meant to frame power as divine authority and violence as moral righteousness.

This is not new in human history. It is ancient. One of the most consistent drivers of war across centuries has been men pursuing power under the banner of God. Religion becomes the justification, the shield, the rallying cry. The details and the geography change. But the justification does not. What Trump did today fits cleanly into that lineage, and that is why it felt so familiar, so gross, and yet so unsurprising.

And this is where Christmas sits uncomfortably this year. This is supposed to be a quiet day. The one moment where people across borders and beliefs recognize something shared. Historically, Christmas has been a day of ceasefires, even in the middle of war. A reminder that humanity still exists beneath conflict. Instead, we watched a president announce violence like a victory lap, complete with threats of more to come.

That tells the world something about us. And that’s the weight I keep coming back to tonight.

When I started writing these posts earlier this year, I had no plan. I wasn’t building a platform. I was trying to stay sane. I was trying to make sense of the volume of cruelty, lies, and instability we were being asked to normalize. I felt helpless, like so many people do in moments like this, and writing became the only way I knew how to push back. What I didn’t expect was you. This community. This daily reminder that there are still people willing to look directly at what’s happening and refuse to excuse it.

You show up. You read. You share. You sit with discomfort instead of turning away. And on the nights when I’m deep in research, reading one more story about displaced families or escalating violence or institutional collapse, it matters to remember that others are carrying this weight too. That resistance does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like consistency. Like refusing to let lies pass unchallenged and staying engaged when it would be easier to disengage.

So many people said the same thing today. This holiday did not feel right. It felt heavy. We’re thinking about migrant families torn apart. Children detained. Communities destabilized. And not just here. Trump has made the world less safe, not only for Americans but for everyone. Allies no longer know whether U.S. commitments will last beyond a single election. Diplomacy has been replaced with spectacle. Trust has been replaced with unpredictability (Pew Research Center global trust surveys).

That kind of damage does not heal quickly. It takes years and multiple election cycles to rebuild credibility. One peaceful transition is not enough. Two begins to matter. Three establishes a pattern. This is how nations earn trust back after periods of instability. Germany after World War II. Spain after Franco. Chile after Pinochet. It is slow, intentional work.

And yet, I keep feeling the shift happening. People keep turning away from Trump. Leadership cracks are forming, and support continues to thin. This is how these movements begin to unravel. And I believe, we are going to keep seeing more of this in January and beyond.

Trump feels the pressure, too. He knows what is happening. And just before I was ready to share this post with you all, he proved it, again, by posting yet another unhinged message:

“Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein, gave him bundles of money, went to his Island, attended his parties, and thought he was the greatest guy on earth, only to “drop him like a dog” when things got too HOT, falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him, didn’t know him, said he was a disgusting person, and then blame, of course, President Donald J. Trump, who was actually the only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so. When their names get brought out in the ongoing Radical Left Witch Hunt (plus one lowlife “Republican,” Massie!), and it is revealed that they are Democrats all, there will be a lot of explaining to do, much like there was when it was made public that the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax was a fictitious story - a total Scam - and had nothing to do with “TRUMP.” The Failing New York Times, among many others, was forced to apologize for their bad and faulty Election “Reporting,” even to the point of losing many subscribers due to their highly inaccurate (FAKE!) coverage. Now the same losers are at it again, only this time so many of their friends, mostly innocent, will be badly hurt and reputationally tarnished. But sadly, that’s the way it is in the World of Corrupt Democrat Politics!!! Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas! President Donald J. Trump”

That is the sitting President of the United States, a position that was once respected around the world, now reduced to whatever this was. A rambling, hostile message delivered on Christmas Day, filled with conspiracy theories, personal vendettas, and veiled threats. To think that someone in our government, the most powerful elected official in the country, would write to the American people like this, threatening his political enemies, ranting about Epstein, and ending with “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas,” is not only disturbing. It’s destabilizing. It’s a man with absolute power playing with matches in a house he already set on fire.

And it raises a question that almost no one seems willing to ask out loud. Is he confessing? Is this projection? Because Donald Trump was a Democrat for much of Epstein’s peak crime years. He was photographed with him. He was close with him. He hosted him. So, when he says Democrats are involved, is he including himself? Is this his way of naming it out loud without taking responsibility? He wants to be both the whistleblower and the victim. The accuser and the absolved. And no one in his party will stop him.

Where is the outrage from the GOP? Where is the line? How is there not a single Republican, not one, willing to call for his resignation after everything he has said, done, and promised to do again? And maybe more importantly, where are the others? Where are the past presidents? Is it time for them to break their tradition of silence and stand together, all of them, across party lines, and say: this is not who we are. This is not what America is supposed to be. Because while most presidents spend Christmas posting messages of peace and unity, our president posted a deranged threat, and that should terrify every single one of us.

We cannot keep living at the edge of sanity, holding our breath for the next outburst, the next threat, the next escalation. We’ve seen what happens when men like this are cornered. The more boxed in he feels, the more dangerous he becomes, and the louder, more chaotic, and more deranged his messages will grow. And we need to treat those posts as both deeply concerning and also proof that the cracks are getting wider. He is lashing out because the walls are closing in. Because people are starting to turn away.

That’s where the glimmer is. Not in the post itself, but in the fact that he’s writing it at all.

I hope that when we gather again next year, for Christmas, for Hanukkah, for Thanksgiving, and all the other joyous gatherings, the air feels different. Not because everything is fixed, but because we’ve proven that we’re capable of holding the line. That we stood up, showed up, and took back whatever ground we could in the midterms. I believe we can win. I believe we will stop the institutionalization of this ideology. I believe we can push back against this rising tide, and that slowly, deliberately, we can begin to repair what they tried to destroy.

We are not at the finish line. Nothing is guaranteed. But if we keep the momentum, if we keep telling the truth, if we keep going even when it’s hard, we can start to right this ship.

So Merry Christmas to those who celebrated. I hope your day was full of love, peace, and rest. And if even that felt out of reach this year, if today was heavy or quiet or filled with grief, I want you to know: you made it through. You did something hard, and you are not alone.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, chances are we see things the same way. You can make a difference right now by subscribing to my Substack. There is a free option and the option to help me reach a wider audience with a $5/month paid subscription. Your support allows me to cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in our country.