Donald Trump joked with troops that he had bought wife Melania ‘a beautiful card’ on Christmas Eve but that he was still working on her present.
The president admitted he was going to have to work ‘real fast’ on the gift-front as he fielded questions from military personnel during a call to wish them a merry Christmas.
Speaking on Tuesday by video conference from his private club in Florida, where is he is on a more than two-week holiday, Mr Trump said: “I want to wish you an amazing Christmas.”
The group included Marines in Afghanistan, an Army unit in Kuwait, a Navy ship in the Gulf of Aden, an Air Force base in Missouri and a Coast Guard station in Alaska.
Mr Trump praised the armed forces for their efforts this year to eliminate the last of the Islamic State group’s territorial caliphate and for killing IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He was asked what he had bought Mrs Trump for Christmas.
A “beautiful card,” he said, and admitted that he was “still working on a Christmas present.”
“You made me think. I’m going to have to start working on that real fast,” he said.
The president and first lady also attended a music-filled Christmas Eve service at a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church before going to a dinner at his private club.
The pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Florida, Jimmy Scroggins, and his family greeted the Trumps as they arrived moments into the event, called a Candlelight Christmas Celebration.
The Trumps received applause and cheers while taking reserved seats in the church’s third pew.
Brief sermons and readings by clergy were interlaced between traditional Christmas songs, as theatrical smoke billowed and fake snow descended from the rafters.
The Trumps then returned to his private club, where they were greeted by applause as they entered for Christmas Eve dinner.
Mr Trump, less than a week after being impeached by the House, did not respond when asked by a reporter if he prayed for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at church, but he said: “We’re going to have a great year.”
Additional reporting by Associated Press
