Outgoing President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump delivered Christmas messages in different styles, with Democrat Biden urging Americans to reflect and come together and Republican Trump sending a brief holiday greeting and a series of politically-focused media posts. social networking.

Biden, in a video posted on YouTube late yesterday on Christmas Eve, showing the White House Christmas decorations, urges Americans to put aside “all the noise and everything that divides us.”

“We’re here on this Earth to care for each other, to love each other,” Biden says in the video’s spiel as the camera pans past decorated evergreen trees and ornate fireplaces inside the White House. “Too often we see each other as enemies, not as neighbors, not as fellow Americans,” he says.

The outgoing president urged Americans to take a moment of “quiet reflection” to remind themselves to treat each other with dignity and respect, to “live in the light” and to remember that there is more that unites than divides Americans . “We are truly blessed to live in this nation,” he said.

For his part, Trump made a post on Christmas today writing “Merry Christmas” along with a photo of himself and his wife Melania. The Republican then made more than 22 retweets of articles or other social media posts that supported his policy positions on issues such as the controversial pick of Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, and the president-elect’s pursuit of the Greenland and Canal Panama.

One of the retweets was a mocking meme of Barack Obama showing a photo of the 44th US president and Trump at his inauguration in 2017 with the comment “When you see the guy at your inauguration who said ‘you’ll never be president'” .

Biden took office in 2021 pledging to end the “civil war” climate of recent years, saying he would try to build bridges between Democrats and Republicans, rural and urban areas, conservatives and progressives.

In July, he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, paving the way for Kamala Harris to run, with Biden saying the move was to unite the country.

But polarization in the country has intensified instead, with Trump saying he will pursue prosecutions of his political enemies and an overhaul of the federal government when he takes office on January 20.