Trump aides’ official religious messages for Christmas draw objections; The Washington Post, December 26, 2025

Azi Paybarah , The Washington Post; Trump aides’ official religious messages for Christmas draw objections

"How to celebrate Christmas while respecting the Constitution’s ban on “establishment of religion” has been an issue for federal officials at least since 1870 when President Ulysses S. Grant, seeking to unite the country after a brutal Civil War, designated Christmas — along with Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day — as federal holidays.

Government officials sought to balance the celebration of a federal holiday rooted in a religious tradition with the country’s tradition of pluralism and secular public spaces. The result was often a Christmas message that avoided specific references to Christianity. For decades, it was common for government officials on both sides of the aisle to share celebratory yet secular messages about Christmas with images that did not carry overt religious meanings, like snowflakes and Christmas trees.

Many still do. The State Department, for example, posted a secular Christmas message this year, directed at “all Americans.”

Many of the Trump administration’s officials who are most active on social media, however, took a different approach."

Trump’s ‘Best People’ and Their Dubious Ethics; New York Times, February 18, 2018

Editorial Board, New York Times; Trump’s ‘Best People’ and Their Dubious Ethics

"Perhaps we should not be surprised by these ethical lapses, given that the president himself has little interest in ethical niceties. He has refused to disclose his tax returns or divest businesses that may create conflicts of interest between Mr. Trump the executive and Mr. Trump the president. And he has given his daughter and son-in-law, who have no government experience, plum White House jobs.

Here are some of the recent scandals in Trumpland that deserve greater public scrutiny, or even congressional hearings and investigations."

More than 40 percent of Trump’s first Cabinet-level picks have faced ethical or other controversies; Washington Post, February 16, 2018

Aaron Blake, Washington Post; More than 40 percent of Trump’s first Cabinet-level picks have faced ethical or other controversies

"President Trump came to Washington promising to “drain the swamp.” But after less than 13 months, more than 40 percent of the people he originally picked for Cabinet-level jobs have faced ethical or other controversies. The list has grown quickly in recent weeks.

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt are that latest to have their questionable travel practices probed. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that an inspector general's report determined Shulkin and top aides misled ethics officials about expenses for a controversial 10-day European trip Shulkin took with his wife. The Post also reported Sunday that Pruitt has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on first-class travel; since then his agency has said it obtained a waiver for him to fly first-class for security reasons.

The two of them join three other Cabinet-level officials who have faced ethical questions over their travels."