Joe Biden sends Christmas and holiday greetings to service members

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President Joe Biden marked his Christmas with a series of calls to Americans stationed around the world in all six branches of the US armed services.

The White House released a list of the units which received calls from the president on Sunday. They included: the 3rd Squadron of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade of the US Army, stationed in Panama City; the Navy destroyer USS Sullivans, currently in the Arabian Sea; a Marine Corps recruiting depot in San Diego; the 18th Security Forces Squadron of the Air Force stationed in Okinawa, Japan; the Coast Guard cutter ship Bertholf stationed in Alameda, California; as well as members of the newest branch of the military: the US Space Force.

Space Force members who received Mr Biden’s call were among the 4th Expeditionary Electromagnetic Warfare Flight Delta, stationed in Europe.

Mr Biden’s low-key Christmas greetings to Americans including those in the armed forces contrasted considerably with those of Donald Trump, who spent his Christmas morning condemning his political enemies for supposedly destroying the country from within.

The ex-president went on a furious diatribe Sunday morning as he continues to insist that he be reinstated as president — and in recent weeks has even called for the Constitution to be suspended.

Mr Biden now faces the choice of whether he will officially launch a campaign for re-election despite his age and sagging approval ratings. Were he to do so, he could very well end up facing Mr Trump in a rematch of 2020, given that the ex-president is the only Republican of note to officially launch a 2024 bid so far, and remains on top of most polling of the GOP primary field.

The president spent his holiday weekend at the White House, where pool reports noted that his family joined him for their traditional Italian family dinner on Christmas Eve.

Washington DC remains free from much of the devastating winter weather that has slapped New York and other states across the northeast and upper midwest, claiming at least 24 lives according to CNN.

But temperatures remained low across the capital region over the weekend, driven down further by wind and triggering the District of Columbia’s hypothermia warnings for houseless residents.