The Fix Analysis

When Trump forbade a Christmas tree — and other forgotten stories from the ‘war on Christmas’

By Avi Selk December 25 at 3:50 PM

It's Christmas, and President Trump is celebrating by repeatedly typing “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” — and by taking credit for having “led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase.” ... Ah, the proverbial “war on Christmas,” in which the holiday is under attack — with even the “Merry Christmas” greeting frowned upon — and the faithful fight to defend it. And first among them: Trump. ... But is Trump really the hero here? Or was he always more of a bystander — or worse? ... It depends on how many Christmases we look at.

Christmas 1981: No trees allowed

In the 1980s, his political rise still decades away, Trump bought an old apartment building across the street from Central Park in New York that he hoped to tear down and rebuild as a high-rent tower. ... When the longtime residents wouldn't move out voluntarily, the New York Times wrote, Trump hired a management company that essentially ran the building into the ground.

And while Trump threatened to house homeless people in the building, the management company used creative tactics that included covering windows in tin and forbidding Christmas decorations in the lobby. ... It was probably the least of residents' concerns, but Trump allowed no Christmas tree in 1981, the Times wrote, nor in the next year.
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Christmas 1983: “Nowhere to go for the holidays.”

After two years of what New York Magazine called a “cold war” between Trump's tenants and his managers, the Central Park building was a mess of hostility and broken appliances. ... A tenant representative finally wrote to Trump's management company in 1983, asking for permission to at least put up a Christmas tree. Many of the residents “are very old and have nowhere to go,” she wrote, the magazine reported. “This will be their only chance to share in the holiday spirit.” ... The company wrote back that in light of the tenants' complaints, it was “quite difficult for Management to feel that a relaxed 'holiday season spirit' relationship exists at the building.” ... Moreover, a Christmas tree might raise religious-liberty concerns, it said.
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{Snip one example after another of what a liar this {deleted} is.}

Avi Selk is an American-Canadian nomad. He reported for the Dallas Morning News from 2009 until December 2016, when he joined the general assignment desk. Follow @aviselk