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President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump took calls from children calling into North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa Tracker on Monday evening, wishing them a Merry Christmas and asking them about St. Nick. “What's Santa going to get you for Christmas? Who's with you?” Trump asked to a kid from Indiana, according to the White House pool report. “Have a great Christmas, and I'll talk to you again, OK?” The president also asked a 7-year-old named Collman if she still believed in Santa Claus. “Because at seven it's marginal, right?” he asked. NORAD has been doing the online Santa Tracker for the past 63 years, tracking Santa's global quest to deliver presents all over the world from the North Pole. Despite the government shutdown, a number of personnel and about 1,500 volunteers were still working.
In between calls, Trump told reporters that there was “nothing new on the shut down” and the U.S. needed border security. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley also told the press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited Trump to visit Turkey in 2019. Gidley reportedly said that the president was “open to a potential meeting” sometime in the future.