While speaking with children on the night before Christmas, President Donald Trump responded to a reporter's question by saying there is no update on the government shutdown, except for a still unresolved need for "border security."
"Nothing new, nothing new on the shutdown," President Trump said in the video posted by ABC News on Twitter, pausing on his phone call with NORAD Santa Tracker phone calls, a Christmas Eve tradition.
"Nothing new – except we need border security."
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, tracks Santa Claus' flight across the globe, a tradition of over 60 years.
Despite the government shutdown over Senate Democrats' resistance to President Trump's $5 billion request for border wall funding, 1,500 volunteers have kept the NORAD Santa Tracker phone calls going this Christmas Eve.
President Trump participated from the White House on Monday night after canceling a planned trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida because of the shutdown.
Sitting with his wife, Melania, before a roaring fireplace under a picture of former President Abraham Lincoln, President Trump asked a 7-year-old over the phone: "Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven it's marginal, right?"
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