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Trump and the First Lady Participate in the National Christmas Tree Lighting, Dec. 4, 2025

December 4, 2025 · The White House · 0:10:59

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump participated in the 103rd National Christmas Tree Lighting at President’s Park in Washington on December 4, 2025. The First Lady did the honors on the countdown — “We’ll go from five to zero” — and lit the tree. The President recognized Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance, members of the Cabinet and their families, Wayne Gretzky, the National Park Service, and the evening’s performers.

In his remarks he turned to the day’s diplomacy: “And we just settled another war today. You saw that with Rwanda and the Congo. It’s been going on for 34 years. Millions of people killed, could be 20 million. They don’t know what the number is, and we just settled it today. That was a big one,” as he stated it. He closed his respects with the two Washington National Guardsmen shot the week before — in his telling, Sarah, who was killed and “is watching from heaven,” and Andrew, who “is getting better” — and thanked police, ICE, Border Patrol, and the military, saying the capital had set “a record for lack of crime in 28 years,” as he put it.

Why it matters

The tree lighting is the season’s civic ritual, and this year it doubled as the public announcement of the Rwanda–Congo agreement signed hours earlier — the President chose the ceremony to put the settlement on the record. This chronicle files it on the Elections & Governance hub; the war figures and crime claim are the President’s, as stated.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the President’s same-day settlement announcement (filed in full on this site’s Rwanda–Congo signing page) and his dated capital-crime claim as stated. Noted for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump and The First Lady Participate in the National Christmas Tree Lighting,” Washington, D.C., December 4, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President at the ceremony.