On Wednesday, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were on hand to light up the Christmas tree on the Ellipse outside of the White House. Competing with the Rockefeller tree lighting back in Trump’s hometown, as well as other events across the U.S., the White House pulled out the big guns: Shark Hunter actor Antonio Sabato Jr. hosted, with musical performances from Christian singer Matthew West, Nashville newcomer Abby Anderson, the United States Army Band, and the nun choral group the Dominican Sisters of Mary. The president and Melania ended up abruptly departing after Trump’s speech, leaving the protective-pool reporters in the dust. Today, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. It’s unclear if those two things are related. The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association called it a “logistical glitch.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke introduced the president to the podium at the end of the performances, calling him “the man who brought Christmas back to America.” Why is Zinke, himself the man who’s instituted so many policies that threaten the public parks that Outside magazine has rated his official actions according to how mad they would make Teddy Roosevelt, casting Trump as the lead in Ernest Saves Christmas? Because the reason for the season, and all seasons, is to fight some kind of war. It all felt very “mission accomplished” there at the Christmas tree lighting—two years removed from the Obama administration and the “turning Christmas trees into holiday trees” conspiracy theories, Zinke and Trump and company seem content to declare victory in a war that has been fought exclusively on Fox News and at the president’s rallies.

Trump was happy as ever to assume the position as protector of Christmas, reading a verse from the Bible that was not quite the English Standard Version, not quite King James, but the Trumpian version, which edits out the prepositions. So instead of foretelling “good tidings of great joy,” the angel Gabriel promised “good tidings, great joy.” Watching him read a similar nativity verse that children across the world will read in church this month is, like so many things in this coal-sooted era, surreal. It’s hard even now to get used to seeing Trump propped up as an evangelical savior, and it’s easy to forget so many regard him as such when he’s out there on the road making fun of assault survivors, immigrants, and anyone else who gets in his way. But it’s the holiday season, and irony can easily be drowned out by another rendition of “White Christmas.”

For those who’d rather see the show on the small screen, Ovation and REELZ will broadcast the 2018 National Christmas Tree Lighting on Sunday, December 2 at 10 P.M. E.S.T.