President of the United States Donald Trump welcomed the month of December with the White House Christmas Tree lighting and a story. However, a photo posted online indicates that the 95<sup>th annual tree lighting at the White House last Nov. 30 was met with a lot of empty chairs.
President Trump, together with First Lady Melania Trump, wished the entire world a Merry Christmas. The POTUS delivered a warm message through the story of Jesus Christ's birth. Trump posted a video of his speech and the tree lighting on his official Twitter account. "The Christmas Story begins 2,000 years ago with a mother, a father, their baby son and the most extraordinary gift of all, the gift of God's love for all of humanity," Trump said.
"Each and every year, at Christmas time we recognize that the real spirit of Christmas is not what we have, it's about who we are, each one of us, is a child of God," he added.
After his speech, Trump raised two thumbs up and was met with cheers from the audience.
However, a photo posted by Meteorologist Steve Rudin from ABC7 who was present during the event shows a lot of empty seats. Rudin captioned his tweet with "The National Tree Lighting ceremony was beautiful this evening, but hard not to notice the empty seats".
A few news publications and netizens suggest that Trump was mocked with the empty seats. However, there are those who praised the President for his speech toward the American people and from all over the globe. One individual tweeted, "Thank you so much mr. and mrs. President for the beautiful tree lighting and the wonderful loving speech you gave to this country today."
Trump has not commented on the reactions from the public or about the empty seats during the tree lighting event.
