Donald and Melania Trump look like someone ate their parsnips in their official Christmas portrait.
Festive photos are typically smiley affairs, but the US President and First Lady struck a sombre pose in this year’s photo.
Surrounded by Grinch-green foliage, the pair held hands and looked awfully serious in black formal wear.
‘Merry Christmas from President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump,’ the White House posted.
The first couple might be a little tired after hosting a mega 29 Christmas parties for guests on the main floor of the White House.
They will now spend the holidays at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Nonetheless, people can’t quite work out why the pair look so dour at the cheeriest time of the year.
Supporters have painted it as a look of determination, while critics argue it’s inappropriately miserable.
‘They look like they’re going to a funeral,’ one person wrote.
Perhaps the frown comes after a setback for the president in the Supreme Court.
The country’s highest legal body rejected his plans to immediately send the National Guard to Chicago to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
It was a rare defeat for Trump, who has had a high success rate with cases before the justices in his second term.
The president’s Christmas photo wasn’t the only thing to be compared to The Grinch, either.
The democrat governor of California, Gavin Newsom, called him ‘The Grinch in Chief’ yesterday as he claimed Trump’s high tariffs on a range of imported goods have put up the price of gifts by 26 per cent.
Game and toys are particularly susceptible to tariff-related price increases because the majority of the ones sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to industry trade group The Toy Association.
This year the Administration has placed a rollercoaster of different tarrifs rates on Chinese goods: starting at an additional 10 per cent, peaking at 145 per cent and ending up at 47 per cent.
However Trump has reasons to smile, too.
The US economy smashed predictions to record a huge 4.3 per cent economic growth rate for the third quarter of 2025.
Economists also got the rate of inflation wrong. Many predicted above 3 per cent, but the real figure was 2.7 per cent.
Trump used his year-end address last week to declare that America is ‘respected again’.
He added: ‘Our country is back, stronger than ever before.’
The Trump’s eye catching Christmas photo comes just as the First Lady debuted the trailer for her new documentary, titled Melania, which will premiere in theatres on January 30.
The 104-minute documentary follows the 20 days leading up to her husband’s inauguration in January this year.
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