Trump gives federal workers two more days off for the Christmas holiday

President Trump, who has long complained about too many federal holidays, is giving federal workers extra days off next week for the Christmas holiday.

The president’s early Christmas present to workers gives them the additional days off of Dec. 24 and Dec. 26.

Mr. Trump signed an executive order giving federal employees Christmas Eve and the Day after Christmas as holidays. Federal employees already get Dec. 25 off for Christmas Day, a standard federal holiday.

“All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Wednesday, December 24, 2025, and Friday, December 26, 2025, the day before and the day following Christmas Day, respectively,” the order states.

The order clarifies that some agencies and offices may need to remain open on the 24th and 26th, and certain federal employees may still need to report for duty if their jobs involve “national security, defense or other public need.”

Presidents are not required to give federal employees extra time off around the holidays, but most have done so in recent years. President Biden gave federal workers off on Christmas Eve in 2024, and during Mr. Trump’s first term, he gave workers Christmas Eve off in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

But this year is the first time in recent years that federal employees have received two days off around the holidays. In 2014, President Obama gave federal workers the day off on Dec. 26 because it fell on a Friday, but did not give them Christmas Eve as a holiday.

It is somewhat surprising that Mr. Trump is granting federal workers extra days because he has complained that America has too many federal holidays and the days off cost billions in lost economic output.

“Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our country billions of dollars to keep all these businesses closed,” Mr. Trump wrote in June regarding the Juneteenth federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.

“The workers don’t want it either!” Mr. Trump continued. “Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every one working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”