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Opinion

Dear Santa, Trump has been very naughty. Don’t give him anything. Not even coal.

My Christmas wish is that the millions of Americans struggling this year to fill their stockings will somehow find joy — despite this administration’s policies.

In an eleventh-hour appeal to St. Nick — portrayed here by one of his close friends, Dennis Daniels, at the Comcast Center earlier this month — Jenice Armstrong writes that President Donald Trump should receive only an empty stocking this year.
In an eleventh-hour appeal to St. Nick — portrayed here by one of his close friends, Dennis Daniels, at the Comcast Center earlier this month — Jenice Armstrong writes that President Donald Trump should receive only an empty stocking this year.Read moreJessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

Dear Santa Claus,

I hope you and Mrs. Claus are well. This is the first time in a long while that I have taken the time to write out my Christmas wish list. It’s a long one, but it’s also for the millions of Americans struggling this year to fill their Christmas stockings.

Donald Trump, a spray-tanned, 21st-century version of Ebenezer Scrooge, claims the affordability crisis is a “Democratic hoax,” and that parents should deal with it by buying fewer toys. With a heart that’s at least two sizes too small, he just can’t relate to those who scrape to get by. The only struggle he can relate to has to do with pronouncing the word acetaminophen.

Like the main character in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Trump enjoys demeaning people — as he did last week when he unveiled a series of plaques near the Oval Office, deliberately distorting the legacies of former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Trump isn’t in the same league with either of them. Not even close. Same thing with President John F. Kennedy, but that didn’t stop him from having his name slapped onto the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last week.

Please, Santa, make sure your sleigh doesn’t drop off any presents at the White House on Christmas Eve. Same thing with Mar-a-Lago. Remember Trump’s posting an AI-generated meme dropping what looks like feces on “No Kings” protesters back in October? Just tell Dasher, Dancer, Rudolph, and the rest to fly right on by both of these locations.

Unemployment rose to 4.6% last month, the highest increase since 2021. For African Americans, it’s way higher, at 8.3%. Kudos to Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.), among others, for demanding answers about what’s going on. Please don’t forget to drop off something really nice for them.

Also, as I’m sure you’re aware, America is on the verge of a healthcare crisis. Once federal subsidies to the Affordable Care Act expire Dec. 31, millions will see their health insurance costs skyrocket. This isn’t the kind of thing you and the elves typically work on up at the North Pole, but members of Congress have failed to come up with a solution.

If something drastic doesn’t happen soon, millions may wind up dropping their policies, which could prove catastrophic. We can’t count on that old Scrooge, I mean the president, who campaigned claiming he had a “concept of a plan” to fix healthcare. He hasn’t done it yet, and I doubt he ever will. Instead of boxed gifts, anything you can do to help us resolve this important issue would be deeply appreciated.

Trump really deserves that No. 1 spot on your naughty list this year. It’s one thing to try to secure America’s borders, but it’s a whole other thing to allow masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out a reign of terror on undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

There have been many other lowlights from the first 11 months of his second term: imposing tariffs on foreign countries that have raised costs for American consumers, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, and stopping diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government and anywhere else he can.

On top of everything else, Trump doesn’t even bother to hide his bigotry anymore. Under his leadership, officials have admitted white Afrikaners — descendants of the European colonizers whose segregationist practices led to the formalization of apartheid in South Africa — granting them refugee status while doing everything in his power to deport Black and brown migrants. I haven’t recovered from his calling Somalis “garbage” and saying that they should leave the country.

They and anyone else Trump doesn’t like have to go because he’s worried about “chain migration,” but first lady Melania Trump, who brought her parents to the States using the same process, can stay? Make it make sense.

I could go on and on, but I’m trying to embrace the holiday spirit. Please give my regards to Mrs. Claus and to all of the elves who work so hard to make the Yuletide season jolly.

When you make your way down my chimney, you will find your cookies and milk in their usual place. I don’t need anything personally, but please do what you can to make life easier for Americans scraping to get by in the so-called golden age of Trump. As a certain humbug himself might say, thank you for your attention to this matter!

Love, Jenice