In the days leading up to the election results, Andrea sensed something quietly shifting in her home—tiny, unsettling signs she couldn’t fully name.
Her husband’s guarded phone screen, hushed family group chats that stopped when she entered the room, even the tense silence at dinner—all now felt like warnings she had ignored. When she later scrolled past his celebratory Trump post, those vague suspicions crystallized, leaving her with the chilling realization that the political divide tearing the country apart had quietly entered her own living room.
Donald Trump’s election win sent shockwaves through households across the United States, straining relationships and, in some cases, upending holiday traditions. One family’s celebrations fell apart after Andrea stumbled upon her husband’s pro-Trump post while scrolling through social media.
For years, families nationwide have struggled to navigate this widening political chasm, with both liberal and conservative relatives convinced the other threatens core values. Andrea’s reaction to Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris last year was raw and symbolic. She revealed in a HuffPost essay how the results pushed her to withdraw from both Thanksgiving and Christmas with her husband’s family.
“The morning after the election, I couldn’t leave my bed,” she wrote. “I quietly removed Facebook friends who had supported the Republican candidate—small acts of frustration reflecting my deeper heartbreak.” Then she saw it: her husband’s jubilant post praising Trump, complete with, “God Bless America. God bless #45, 47.”
Flooded with anger and sorrow, Andrea couldn’t face him. She demanded he delete the post “out of respect for me and all my liberal writer friends” and bluntly told him, “Tell your family I love them, but I won’t be coming for Thanksgiving, and I won’t be hosting Christmas. I need space.”
Her husband attempted to soften the tension with a quiet gesture—a coffee and acknowledgment of her feelings. Andrea explained why she couldn’t attend or host holiday gatherings: “I can’t stay silent like I did during Hillary’s election.
I won’t sit in a room with 15 people who voted for Trump. I will not open gifts from people who supported a party that threatened women’s reproductive rights and vulnerable communities.”
He didn’t fight her decision—and he didn’t remove the post.
Conclusion
Andrea’s withdrawal wasn’t merely emotional—it was a personal boundary in a political landscape that had reshaped her view of the people closest to her.
For her, the holidays were symbols of unity and shared values, now compromised. While drastic to some, stepping back was an act of self-preservation, a recognition that the greatest divides aren’t always on ballots—they often emerge quietly at the family dinner table, where love and ideology collide in ways no one is fully prepared for.