US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania have released their 2018 Christmas card. While it’s definitely as opulent as you’d expect, there are also some surprising touches.

The picture, an official White House photo taken by Andrea Hanks, was shot just before their Congressional Ball at the White House at the weekend.

It shows a number of different-sized sparkling Christmas trees surrounding the couple, peppered with traditional red ornaments, as well as snowflake holograms on the roof and regal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling in the Cross Hall room.

The president dressed in a Mar-a-Lago tuxedo while the First Lady wore a showstopping white sequin Celine gown which came straight from the runway, in a fittingly festive ensemble.

The picture is so perfect — too perfect — it almost makes them look fake. But it’s certainly what you would have come to expect from a multi-millionaire couple who also happen to be the President and the First Lady of the United States.

But the two have also managed to surprise in some ways.

Normally ones not to put on an affectionate or overly warm display, the Trump’s are pictured hand-in-hand as they both show off wide grins in the happy snap.

It comes a week news broke Mr Trump would not be holding the White House’s usual holiday party for the press, making the decades-old tradition a victim of his increasingly contentious relationship with the press.

The annual Christmas-season gathering was a significant perk for those covering the White House, as well as other Washington reporters, anchors and commentators, and New York media executives would regularly fly in for the occasion.

At its peak, the invitation-only soirees grew so large that there were two back-to-back events, one for broadcast outlets and one for print organisations.

Journalists who attended the events, which featured a catered buffet of lamb chops, crab claws and elaborate desserts, got to roam the decorated mansion with a spouse or other family member, a friend or a colleague, adding to the invitation’s allure.
=
But the biggest fringe-benefit was the picture-taking sessions, in which the president and first lady would patiently pose with guests and briefly chat with them in front of a Christmas tree, with the White House sending out the photos — copies of which were invariably sent home to mum.

Mr Trump has also twice refused to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, a media awards dinner attended by every president since Richard Nixon.