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  • 2021-10-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Christmas Presents Never Arrive Late Under Trump? (en)
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  • On October 14, 2021, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, posted a message on Twitter falsely claiming that Christmas presents never arrived late during the administration of former President Donald Trump. This is false. The Christmas presents did arrive late during Trump's presidency. Late Christmas presents were not unique to the Trump presidency. There are frequently shipping delays during the holiday season as mail carriers deal with an influx of purchases, as well as severe winter weather. In December 2020, the last Christmas with Trump as president, the COVID-19 pandemic further complicated shipping efforts and led to massive delays. A few days before Christmas, Fox News reported that millions of packages likely wouldn't reach their destinations in time: About a month afterward, CNN reported that some people were still waiting for their 2020 Christmas packages: Of course, 2020 was not the first time that Christmas packages were delayed. We found reports from 2019, 2018, and 2017 that noted minor delays in Christmas deliveries, although these delays were much less significant than in 2020. According to Bloomberg, UPS had a 99.1% on-time delivery rate during the Christmas season in 2017. Trump was also not the first president to see delayed deliveries over the Christmas holiday. In 2013, when Barack Obama was president, UPS and FedEx both issued apologies after some customers awoke on Christmas morning without their holiday packages. Jordan's tweet was one of several messages in recent weeks that hyperbolically claimed that President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were, in effect, canceling Christmas. The official House Republicans Twitter account, for example, posted the following message on Twitter: Biden is not trying to steal Christmas. The claim that Biden is canceling or stealing Christmas is part of an ongoing (and largely imaginary) War on Christmas (see our previous coverage of the War on Christmas). The most recent battle in this war stems from a comment Fauci made during an interview with Face the Nation about how it was too early to tell if any travel restrictions would be put in place for Christmas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to a rash of hyperbolic claims that Fauci had canceled Christmas. (It's worth noting that the CDC under Trump in 2020 really did caution against traveling during the holiday season in 2020 due to the pandemic.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VhGkNP9Lv4It's also worth noting that, as of this writing in October 2021, no Christmas presents have arrived late this season. While there have been fears of shipping delays due to supply chain issues, it's too early to tell if Christmas presents will actually be delayed this year. If you are worried about delays this holiday season, you should look at the holiday shipping deadline calendars posted by FedEx and USPS. Both organizations say packages will arrive on time for Christmas if you ship your gifts by Dec. 15 for ground delivery within the United States. (en)
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