Former President Donald Trump has claimed he made Americans say “Merry Christmas” again after assuming office in 2016. During a Newsmax Christmas special which began airing Thursday, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee claimed that just before the 2016 Presidential election, “America had [been] going into a long period where people quit saying ‘Merry Christmas.’” Huckabee told Trump he “deliberately” changed that trend. Trump said when he announced his presidential bid in 2015, “the country had started with this ‘woke’ a little bit before that.

“And it was embarrassing for stores to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ You’d see these big chains, they want your money but they don’t want to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ And they’d use reds and they’d use whites and snow but they wouldn’t say ‘Merry Christmas,’” he added.

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“When I started campaigning I said, ‘You’re going to say Merry Christmas again.’ And now people are saying it,” Trump continued. 

During his presidential campaign and early in his administration, Trump and his allies labelled stores that removed holiday images from branding or saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” as anti-Christian. Some Republicans even accused large corporations of hating Jesus.

“I love Christmas,” Trump said in 2015.

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“You go to stores now, and it doesn’t say Christmas. It says ‘Happy Holidays.’ All over! I say, ‘Where’s Christmas?’ I tell my wife, ‘Don’t go to those stores.’ I want to see Christmas! Other people can have their holidays, but Christmas is Christmas. I want to see ‘Merry Christmas.’ Remember the expression ‘Merry Christmas’? You don’t see it. You’re going to see it if I’m elected.”

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However, the Pew Research Center found in 2017 that 90% of Americans celebrated Christmas, with just over half saying it “doesn’t matter” how businesses greet their customers during the holiday season.

That same year, Trump tweeted on Christmas Eve: “People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

According to Trump and Huckabee, the phrase “Merry Christmas” is “a part of American culture.”