Trump Claims He Made 'Merry Christmas' Popular Again

Former President Donald Trump has claimed he made the phrase “Merry Christmas” popular again, in a bizarre interview aired Thursday night.

During a sit-down interview with Mike Huckabee for a Newsmax Christmas Special, the former president credited himself for repopularizing “Merry Christmas,” adding that he made it one issue he discusses in his campaigns.

“When I started campaigning, I said you’re going to say ‘Merry Christmas’ again, and now people are saying it,” Trump told Huckabee, as quoted by The Business Insider.

“I would say it all the time during that period, that we want them to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ Don’t shop at stores that don’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ and I’ll tell you, we brought it back very quickly.”

The former president also went on to claim that all Americans love Christmas, even those from different faiths.

"Whether you're Muslim, whether you're Christian, where you're Jewish, everyone loves Christmas," he said.

Neither Muslims nor Jewish people celebrate Christmas, which is a predominantly Christian holiday.

Trump first began rooting out “happy holidays” as a greeting in 2016. However, a Public Policy Polling survey published in 2016 found that only 13% said they would find it offensive if someone said “happy holidays” to them. The poll also found that 46% of Americans did not really care what phrasing people use as a holiday greeting.

Along party lines, the 2016 poll found that 21% of strong conservatives and 18% of Trump supporters are most offended by “happy holidays.”

A Pew Research Poll published in 2017 found that 56% of Americans did not care what greetings stores used during the Christmas holidays. Some Christian leaders who were polled even expressed support for the use of “happy holidays,” noting that it was more inclusive.

As with the Public Policy Polling results, the Pew Research Poll also found that only strong conservatives cared about the greetings used.

The argument about holiday greetings is decades old but has seen a resurgence because of Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and former President Trump, with the former arguing that the liberals were “tying the Christmas situation into secular progressive politics,” according to The New York Times.