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A cozy family get-together under the Christmas tree?
Attending a church service?
Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.
Donald Trump decided against family and church on the first - and in the US only - Christmas holiday.
In the morning he left his property in Mar-a-lago (Florida) and drove to Trump International Golf Course, just a few minutes' drive away.
It was not even 10 a.m. on December 25th when Donald Trump arrived at his golf club.
He stayed there for over four hours.
So while Trump spent Christmas Day like almost every last weekend, he offended his own party this week like never before in his almost four-year term in office.
Once again, the incumbent president is showing off even the most loyal of his loyal supporters, embarrassing them, confronting them with decisions in which they can only lose.
How the Grand Old Party (GOP) despaired of the latest antics of its president could even be seen on Christmas Eve: The House of Representatives met in the morning for a so-called pro forma meeting.
The Republicans prevented a tangible embarrassment here by blocking a vote requested by the Democrats.
For now, at least.
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What happened?
After months of negotiations, the Democrats and Republicans recently agreed on a $ 900 billion corona aid package - the first since March.
It provides a one-time check of $ 600 for almost all Americans.
The federal government is also increasing state unemployment benefits by $ 300 a week for the time being.
Under Trump, national debt rose to over $ 27 trillion
There was nothing that Democrats and Republicans, Congress and Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued more than the size of the one-off payment.
It went back and forth for months.
It was almost relieved that Congress passed the aid package with an unusually broad, non-partisan majority.
92 senators voted in favor, only six against.
The House of Representatives voted in a similarly clear manner.
It is a consensus that was once common in the US, but has become extremely rare under Trump.
Finance Minister Mnuchin praised the Corona stimulus package via the green clover.
The Republicans in Congress saw this as evidence that Trump also welcomed the 5593-page legislative package.
The Republicans reacted correspondingly disturbed to horrified when Trump called the law a "disgrace" and announced not to sign it.
"Is the president aware that unemployment benefits will expire the day after Christmas?" Asked Democratic Senator Mark Warner, one of the negotiators.
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Instead of the $ 600 one-off payment negotiated by his own Treasury Secretary, Trump demanded an increase to $ 2,000 for singles (and $ 4,000 for married couples).
This measure would cost another $ 350 billion.
Trump has always been in a spending mood, during his presidency the national debt rose to over $ 27 trillion, over 100 percent of economic output - a record.
Also, perhaps the most blatant contradiction to the loudspeaker promise from the 2016 election campaign to pay off all national debts.
Trump makes his people's life even harder than it already is
The Republicans are turning, at least rhetorically, against an overflowing state.
It was important to your Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, that the $ 900 billion aid package be below the symbolic limit of $ 1 trillion.
At one point the Democrats had asked for a package worth nearly three trillion dollars, but were blown away by the Republicans.
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After Trump's $ 200 demand, the demo cards reacted rapidly: They immediately welcomed Trump's proposal, knowing full well that his party friends thought nothing of it.
Nancy Pelosi, power-conscious Democratic spokeswoman for the House of Representatives, immediately announced a vote on the $ 2,000 lump sum payment.
Republicans should have a choice: vote against their own convictions (for $ 2,000) or against Trump (against $ 2,000).
That vote was prevented by the Republicans on Christmas Eve.
Pelosi is planning a restart on Monday.
McConnell, the powerful Republican majority leader in the Senate, is noticeably quiet.
His relationship with Trump is shattered after he recently, after much hesitation, recognized the legitimacy of the presidential election and congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory.
Trump has been untruthfully claiming since November 3rd that he won.
He spreads insubstantial claims and half-truths, failed dozens of times in court.
That too presents the Republicans with a dilemma: acknowledge reality - or follow Trump?
But Trump is making life for his people a good three weeks before the end of his term in office than it already is.
On Wednesday, for example, he vetoed the $ 740 billion defense budget.
Why?
Among other things, he wants to prevent military facilities from losing their names after prominent Confederates from the civil war.
Trump also called the law for the defense budget a "gift for China and Russia".
No cozy days for the Republicans between Christmas and the New Year
Like the Corona aid package, the defense budget was passed with broad consensus.
43 of the 52 Republican senators had voted in favor.
With his veto, Trump is now joining critics of the defense budget such as left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders, albeit for completely different reasons.
Along with twelve other Democrats and Republicans, he voted no.
To enforce the law against Trump's veto, a two-thirds majority in each chamber is required.
But how are the Republicans supposed to vote here?
Should they suddenly vote against the budget, which they still considered good on December 11th, just to please Trump?
Or should they, alongside the Democrats, reject the incumbent president's veto?
The House of Representatives wants to vote on Monday, the Senate on Tuesday.
It's not going to be a cozy day for Republicans between Christmas and New Year.
The
lame duck
president, who has to evacuate the White House on January 20th, drives his own people ruthlessly in front of him.
A failure of the Pentagon budget would be a first in recent history.
The passage of the
National Defense Authorization Act
is "absolutely necessary for our national security and our soldiers," says the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Republican James Inhofe.
Meanwhile: His attempt to keep Trump from a veto were unsuccessful.
The Democrat Nancy Pelosi sees Trump's veto as an “act of breathtaking ruthlessness” that harms the soldiers, endangers security and undermines the political will of the non-partisan Congress.
A delicate situation for two campaigners in Georgia
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Trump's appeals are particularly sensitive and politically dangerous for two of his particularly loyal party friends in the Senate, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
The two are in the middle of an election campaign to defend their two posts against Democratic challengers in a runoff election in Georgia on January 5th.
It's not easy anyway, as the once conservative Georgia recently voted for Biden with a majority.
But now Loeffler and Perdue, who have so far not even voiced even the slightest criticism of Trump, have to show their colors.
Do you stand by your own voting behavior in the Senate?
Or do you follow Trump in criticizing your own vote?
Loeffler's challenger, the Democrat Raphael Warnock, etched on Twitter: If Loeffler, who praises herself for having supported Trump's plans “100 percent” in the Senate - “then why doesn't she support the $ 2,000 aid checks?”
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The president is known to brutally and publicly punish those who do not unconditionally follow him (even if it is his legendary today-so-tomorrow-so actions).
Trump is holding back in Georgia anyway, only held one rally there.
No further gig has been announced and the election will take place in less than two weeks.
The Georgia election is anything but a regional vote.
If the two Republicans lose their seats to the Democratic challengers, their majority in the Senate is lost.
Democrats and Republicans would each have 50 seats in the second Congress Chamber in this case.
In the event of a tie, the Vice President decides.
From January 20th that will be a woman - namely the Democrat Kamala Harris.