President Joe Biden got a visit from a Christmas troll Friday when a father participating in the annual White House NORAD Santa-tracking call used the phrase “Let’s go, Brandon,” the recently coined stand-in for “F— Joe Biden.”
The dad, identified only as Jared from Oregon, wished the president and first lady Jill Biden a merry Christmas before adding the anti-Biden phrase at the end of his family’s portion of the call. “Merry Christmas, and let’s go, Brandon,” the father said as he signed off.
“Let’s go, Brandon, I agree,” Biden said without missing a beat.
It was unclear from Biden’s reaction if he had recognized the phrase.
Jill Biden, seated next to her husband on a couch in the White House–adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building, did seem aware of the meaning and gave an awkward chuckle before rolling her eyes.
Moments earlier, the father told the president his 2-year-old daughter Penelope would be happy with any presents from Santa, and the president urged the family’s children to go to bed by 9 p.m., according to a pool report. He had told a previous caller that it was logistically crucial that kids expecting a visit from Santa Claus be in bed and asleep between 9 and midnight.
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The anti-Biden neologism emerged in October after an NBC reporter mistakenly said a NASCAR crowd was chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” — she had been interviewing driver Brandon Brown — when they were in fact saying “F— Joe Biden.”
The slogan has appeared on protest signs, on merchandise sold by former President Donald Trump and even in Republican congressional speeches — and, now, in the context of a Christmas Eve chat between an American family and a sitting president.
MarketWatch contributed.
From the archives (December 2018): Trump asks 7-year-old if she still believes in Santa
