• The Society for Human Resource Management was recently hit with an $11.5 million verdict in a lawsuit.
• A new lawsuit claims SHRM revoked a woman’s job offer over a service dog, in violation of the ADA.
• The HR org says it “fully complied” with the ADA and is reviewing the case.

The nation’s largest HR trade group has been sued by a woman who alleges it revoked a job offer because it didn’t want her medical service dog in the office.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Fiona Torres against the Society for Human Resource Management says she is diabetic, and the dog can detect changes in her blood-sugar levels faster and more reliably than a top-tier glucose monitor.

SHRM says it “fully complied” with the Americans with Disabilities Act in offering Torres an alternative “reasonable accommodation” for her health condition.

Torres’ lawsuit was filed less than two weeks after SHRM was ordered to pay $11.5 million in an unrelated race discrimination and retaliation case.

The new complaint alleges that in June 2024, SHRM offered Torres a role as a senior specialist in its product management department at its office in Alexandria, Virginia, then revoked the offer in July because she wanted to bring her dog to work.

Torres said SHRM’s offer to accommodate her medical needs was to allow her to keep food, water, and an insulin pump at her desk, which she felt was insufficient.

“I was ready and able to work,” Torres said in an email to Business Insider through her attorney. “They said they were eager to have me until they found out I had a disability and a service dog.”

The complaint quotes an email from SHRM to Torres denying her accommodation request.

“[I]t does not appear there are any reasonable accommodations that would allow you to perform the essential functions of the role,” SHRM wrote, according to the complaint.

SHRM spokesman Eddie Burke declined to comment on the specifics of the suit, saying the organization was still reviewing the legal papers.

“We support the ADA and are actively committed to supporting employees through fair, respectful, and legally compliant accommodation processes,” he said. “We fully complied with the ADA in this matter and, in consultation with outside legal counsel, met all of our obligations to provide reasonable accommodations to Fiona Torres.”

Lori Kisch, a lawyer for Torres, told Business Insider that SHRM’s alleged conduct was “ironic” given its mission is to provide information and resources to help HR professionals follow laws such as the ADA.

“They can’t argue that they don’t understand the law, and their actions are a reckless indifference to the law,” she said.

Torres’ case, filed in federal court in Virginia, follows a lawsuit brought by a former SHRM employee that alleged race discrimination and retaliation. Rehab Mohamed, a Black and Egyptian instructional designer, claimed her SHRM manager held her to higher standards than white employees. A jury found SHRM liable for $11.5 million in damages.

SHRM has said it plans to file an appeal and that the verdict “does not reflect the facts, the law, or the truth of how” it operates.

Mining and heavy equipment operations are undergoing a profound transformation as OEMs, fleet operators, and system integrators embrace connected machinery at scale. The sector—traditionally constrained by harsh environmental conditions, safety risks, and limited real-time visibility—is increasingly adopting ruggedized IoT technologies, AI-driven analytics, and predictive safety systems to reduce downtime and protect workers. This shift mirrors the wider industrial trend toward sensor-rich assets and cloud–edge architectures already visible in manufacturing and utilities, but with unique constraints linked to vibration, dust, corrosion, and extreme temperatures.

How Connectivity Is Reshaping Heavy Equipment Operations

Digitalization in mining has historically been slowed by the absence of stable connectivity in remote sites and the reliability limits of electronics exposed to heavy mechanical stress. That picture is now changing with more resilient IoT modules, advanced LPWAN and private LTE/5G deployments, and purpose-built telematics platforms. These technologies allow operators to monitor engine health, hydraulic systems, tire pressure, load cycles, and environmental conditions with a granularity that was impossible a decade ago.

Sensor fusion at the edge is also becoming standard: accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, GNSS modules, thermal probes, and proximity detection systems are combined in compact units that meet IP67/IP69K ratings and MIL-STD vibration thresholds. This rugged design push is central to enabling uninterrupted data acquisition in high-impact environments.

When connectivity is available, OEMs can further integrate over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates and remote equipment diagnostics—features that have become common in connected vehicles and industrial machinery. These capabilities also support more proactive maintenance models, helping reduce unscheduled downtime and improving asset utilization. IoT Business News has previously examined the role of resilient connectivity in industrial automation, including the emergence of zero-touch eSIM provisioning for multi-carrier continuity, a trend increasingly relevant for mining sites requiring backup networks.

Ruggedization: Mechanical, Thermal, and Environmental Advances

The latest generation of connected mining equipment leverages several innovations in rugged design:

• Electronics enclosures now use reinforced composites or sealed aluminum with vibration-damping mounts to protect sensing elements and communication modules from repeated shock loads. Components are tested beyond standard automotive-grade tolerances, reflecting the unique rotational and impact patterns of excavators, drilling rigs, and haul trucks.
• Thermal resilience is being enhanced through integrated heat spreaders, conformal coatings, and low-power chip architectures that maintain performance in both arctic and desert environments.

These trends mirror broader IoT hardware developments, where semiconductor localization and new packaging techniques—covered in recent analyses on IoT Business News—play a growing role in supply chain resilience.

Such advances are narrowing the gap between industrial IoT systems used in controlled factory environments and those deployed in open-pit mines or underground tunnels.

Predictive Safety Systems: From Monitoring to Real-Time Intervention

Beyond operational insight, connectivity is enabling a new generation of predictive safety systems designed to reduce collisions, fatigue-related incidents, and mechanical failures. Machine-learning models are increasingly trained on vibration signatures, engine sound patterns, and operator behavior metrics to identify anomalies before they escalate.

Edge-based AI is particularly valuable in remote mines where backhaul bandwidth is limited. Processing data on the machine allows for microsecond-level responses—automatic brake assistance, hazardous proximity alerts, or load imbalance warnings—without relying on cloud latency. As these features evolve, OEMs are integrating advanced Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) that consolidate alerts into intuitive dashboards, reducing cognitive load for operators.

Wearables and smart PPE are also entering mining sites, feeding contextual data into fleet management systems. Combined with vehicle telemetry, they create a richer picture of situational risk, allowing supervisors to implement dynamic safety protocols based on real-time exposure.

The Convergence of Cloud, Edge, and OT Systems

Modern mining operations increasingly resemble distributed digital ecosystems. Connectivity links mobile assets, fixed processing facilities, and autonomous systems such as robotic drills or drones for site inspection. Achieving this integration requires secure, bidirectional interfaces between Operational Technology (OT) and cloud-based analytics platforms.

Vendors are strengthening cybersecurity measures at the hardware level—secure boot processes, TPM modules, encrypted data pipelines—to counter growing concerns around ransomware and equipment sabotage. Mining has become a prime target due to its high-value operations and reliance on continuous uptime.

The convergence of IT and OT architectures also supports regulatory compliance and environmental monitoring. With global pressure on sustainability, connected equipment can document fuel consumption, emissions, and idle time with greater accuracy, enabling more transparent reporting and targeted efficiency gains.

Outlook: Toward Autonomous and Self-Maintaining Heavy Equipment

As ruggedized IoT hardware continues to mature, predictive systems are expected to shift from advisory functions to full automation. Autonomous haulage systems are already deployed in several large mines, and the integration of reliable on-board sensing with private 5G networks will accelerate this trajectory.

The future of connected mining will be defined by equipment capable of self-diagnosing failures, optimizing performance based on operating conditions, and interacting safely with human workers. Achieving this vision requires sustained innovation in rugged design, secure connectivity, and scalable data architectures—but the foundations are already in place.

In an industry where downtime and safety incidents carry enormous costs, connected heavy equipment is no longer an optional upgrade. It is becoming the operational backbone of modern mining.

The post Connected Mining and Heavy Equipment: Rugged Design Trends and Predictive Safety Systems appeared first on IoT Business News.

• Coordinating holidays for four generations of divorce brings both chaos and connection.
• Family gatherings now span multiple households, reflecting changing traditions and expectations.
• Despite imperfections, the family’s ongoing effort to gather shows love’s resilience and adaptability.

I was on my knees in my November garden at 72, jeans soaked, wrestling bishopweed from the cold earth. Some things just keep coming back — bishopweed, old hurts, family patterns, and the stories we tell ourselves about how life was supposed to go.

I glanced at the bag of bulbs — tulips, crocuses, daffodils that I should have planted last month. I’m late, as usual. Best-laid plans. Four generations of my family have lived through divorce: my parents, mine, my son’s, and now my grandchildren’s experience of its aftermath. It’s not the story any of us planned, but it’s the one we live with tenderness and humor — mostly.

I am the matriarch of this sprawling, untidy bunch — nephews, nieces, their children, in-laws, exes, half-siblings, and step-grandparents. I once believed I could keep everyone together, as if some ancient Sicilian bargain required it: family stays together, no matter what. No matter the divisions — divorce, hurt feelings, politics, betrayal, religion.

Now, as the holidays approach, I’m trying to map out what they’ll look like this year. Is my first husband’s wife hosting? Or my ex-daughter-in-law? Who’s on the email chain, and who’s on the text thread? Which day? Who might not come at all? Making sure no one — accidentally or on purpose — gets left out.

I juggle competing plans and multiple households

When I was a child in the 1950s, the entire extended family gathered around a long holiday table that stretched from the dining room into the living room. We dragged in folding tables, scavenged mismatched chairs from the basement, and Uncle Tony had to shout from one end to talk to Aunt Lee at the other. My mother sighed in the kitchen, wondering aloud why she always had to host this huge gathering. I lifted the heavy velvet-lined box to take out the fancy silverware while my father raked leaves in the yard, chatting with neighbors over the fence. Divorce was rare.

Now, the picture looks very different. Our family tables have multiplied. During the holidays, we juggle multiple households, competing plans, and shifting versions of “together.” I’ve learned to hold my expectations loosely. It’s not the Norman Rockwell version, but it’s ours. Love looks different when every branch of the family tree is healing in its own messy, imperfect way. And though the coordination sometimes makes my head spin, I’m quite pleased that everyone still wants to gather — in some form, at some table, somewhere.

When everything gets too tangled, with the group texts, the expectations, and the quiet grief, I go outside. The garden never demands RSVP lists or follow-up emails. It asks only that I show up, hands in the dirt, and remember that what’s alive doesn’t always look orderly.

I struggle with change

I want traditions and people to stay the same — or at least familiar. As a child, I believed that if I could just figure out the right way to do things, I could have love that was always peaceful and adventures that weren’t risky. I didn’t know how ironic — how oxymoronic, really — that was. Even as I aged, I believed that once I got old, life would finally be easy and that all the negative feelings would be behind me. Denial is powerful.

Maybe it’s the therapist in me that still wants to make sense out of every rupture and eliminate the chaos. But healing isn’t tidy, and most families can do is clean up after the storm and rake up the leaves.

The kids are watching

Grief takes up a lot of room at the table. I want to wrap a warm blanket of comfort around the whole family. I want to change all negative feelings into safety and coziness, and have everyone be OK. But the only way I’ve ever reached “it’s OK” is by admitting when it isn’t, and by asking for help when I need it, and by letting the people who love me see that I’m not always fine. No matter who’s coming where or who might not come at all, my challenge now is to stand beside my family rather than try to manage or fix them — to let go without withdrawing.

My grandchildren are watching all of us, trying to figure out how love works after endings. Sometimes, I think they handle emotional complexity with more grace than we adults do. Still, I worry. Is that grace — or just what powerlessness looks like when you’re young? What will they remember?

What I do know is that they continue to love. Their instinct to connect shows me that love doesn’t depend on tidiness. It depends on presence, on trusting that it can stretch. They make room for everyone without overthinking it. Maybe that’s what they’ve learned growing up in families like ours: by not expecting perfection, they’re free to keep loving.

What surprises me most isn’t the breaking — it’s that we keep trying. The family I have now is wide and imperfect, with exes who sometimes bring pies to dinner, step-grandparents who’ve reached inclusion, holidays that span multiple homes and don’t always hold everyone.

I look at my garden, knowing the bishopweed will return no matter how deep I dig. The roses never bloom exactly when I expect them to. The bulbs I planted late will still find their way up through the cold ground come spring. There’s something comforting in that — a reminder that life, and love, don’t follow our timelines.

Virginia DeLuca is a therapist and the author of “If You Must Go, I Wish You Triplets.” She writes about family, aging, and the ways love changes shape over time.

• $55 billion hedge fund Viking Global has returned just 5.8% through November.
• The firm is lagging its rivals and the overall stock market this year.
• 2025 marks the first full year the firm has traded since the exit of former investment boss Ning Jin.

Eleven months into 2025, $55 billion hedge fund Viking Global sits in an underwhelming position.

The long-running Tiger Cub — a nickname for the group of firms connected to the late Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management — is up just 5.8% through November in its flagship stock-picking hedge fund after a 0.5% gain last month, a person close to the manager told Business Insider.

This trails the returns of the overall S&P 500, which was up more than 16% through the same stretch, as well as many of the firm’s main rivals.

Fellow Tiger Cubs Coatue, Maverick, and D1 have all outperformed Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global through the same stretch. Coatue is up more than 13% through November, a person familiar with the firm told Business Insider. Lee Ainslie’s Maverick was up over 23% through November 21, according to HSBC’s Hedge Weekly report. And Dan Sundheim’s D1 has returned 28% through November in the firm’s public equities book, an individual close to the manager told Business Insider.

The managers mentioned declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

For Viking, this run of performance coincides with the firm’s first calendar year without Ning Jin, the former chief investment officer of the manager.

Jin was with Viking for 17 years and was the sole CIO of the firm in 2019 before departing in August of last year. He launched his own firm, Avantyr Capital, earlier this quarter with $1.5 billion.

Viking has become somewhat of an incubator for the industry’s next generation, as several former executives for the firm have gone on to start their own funds, with Sundheim being the biggest of the Viking spin-offs.

The firm’s current CIO is Justin Walsh, who first joined Viking as an intern in 2010. He started full-time at the manager in 2011 and has steadily climbed the ranks since.

At a conference last summer, Walsh spoke about the market risks associated with the growth of large multistrategy hedge funds like Citadel and Millennium, as well as his favorite luxury stock, Cartier-owner Richemont. Walsh was the portfolio manager for industrials and consumer stocks before becoming CIO after Jin’s departure.

Viking’s portfolio and investment style differ somewhat from those of its tech-heavy Tiger Cub peers. The manager is known for taking a more diversified approach, with a significant focus on its short book, to hedge market risk.

In 2022, that paid off for the long-running firm: Viking was down 2.5% that year in its public equities portfolio, while funds like Coatue and Tiger Global suffered much heavier losses.

But that means the firm can miss out on big gains when the market is powered by a small subset of companies. According to regulatory filings, the manager’s biggest holdings, as of the end of the third quarter, are four financial services companies: PNC, JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, and Capital One.

Within Viking’s top 10 holdings, only Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor would be considered a part of the AI trade that has fueled much of the overall market’s gains in 2025.

• YouTube announced that it will hold the global rights to the Oscars starting in 2029.
• It’s a major victory as streamers compete over the finite number of marquee live events.
• Historically, the Oscars are one of the most-watched telecasts of the entire year.

Hollywood’s biggest night is going to a streamer.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday that YouTube will hold the global rights to the Oscars from 2029 through 2033.

While that means they’ll no longer be on ABC starting in 2029, ending a more than 50-year run of consecutive broadcasts on the television network, the Oscars will continue to be available for free worldwide — just on YouTube and YouTube TV. As part of the partnership, red carpet coverage and other behind-the-scenes content from before the award show is also included.

The news comes as streamers like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, and others, increasingly compete over live events to host on their respective platforms. Historically, the Oscars are one of the most-watched nights of TV, and in non-presidential election years, it is often the only non-sporting event to chart within the top 100 most-watched telecasts of the year.

“The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said in a statement. “Partnering with the Academy to bring this celebration of art and entertainment to viewers all over the world will inspire a new generation of creativity and film lovers while staying true to the Oscars’ storied legacy.”

Disney and ABC will continue to hold the rights to the Oscars through 2028, including the milestone 100th Academy Awards.

Outside of the Oscars, the Google Arts & Culture initiative will provide digital access to select Academy Museum exhibitions and programs, the academy said in a statement.

The agreement was also struck at a time when YouTube has evolved beyond a place people post and watch short clips and amateur videos on mobile and desktop to become a fixture in the living room. The monthly Nielsen Gauge shows YouTube grabbing the top spot in share of TV viewing among media companies for months running, with a 12.9% share in October, ahead of Disney (11.4%) and NBCUniversal (8.6%).

The nature of what people are watching has also changed. The streaming data analysis company Digital i found that videos lasting 30 minutes or more accounted for 73% of total viewing on YouTube in the US in October 2024, up 8% from a year earlier.

YouTube has encouraged this shift, rolling out new tools for creators to incentivize them to make serialized shows that look like what you think of as traditional TV.

YouTube’s living room-domination plans loomed in the background of its recent highly public dispute with Disney over how much it should pay the media company to carry its channels like ESPN and ABC News on YouTube TV. Google recently shared numbers showing YouTube TV was the No. 4 pay-TV service in the US.

Traditional media companies have tried to combat YouTube’s expansion by taking a page from the platform and striking deals with YouTube video creators and podcasters.

• Jimmy Carter was the first president to recognize Hanukkah with a menorah lighting in 1979.
• The first official White House Hanukkah party took place in 2001, hosted by George W. Bush.
• Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump have continued to host Hanukkah receptions.

The White House hasn’t always marked the Festival of Lights with menorah lightings and musical performances.

Official Christmas celebrations date back to the 1800s, but celebrating Hanukkah at the White House is a fairly recent development in US history.

President John Adams hosted the first White House Christmas party in 1800, and President Calvin Coolidge held the first National Christmas Tree lighting in 1923. Jacqueline Kennedy began the tradition of choosing a theme for the White House Christmas decorations in 1961.

Still, the first official White House Hanukkah reception wasn’t held until 2001.

Take a look at the fascinating history of how the White House Hanukkah party came to be.

President Jimmy Carter was the first president to recognize Hanukkah by lighting a menorah in 1979.

The menorah lighting was held on the Ellipse, a lawn south of the White House.

The secretary of the interior under Carter initially refused to issue a permit for a menorah on the White House lawn, citing the First Amendment, The Washington Post reported. But Stu Eizenstat, one of Carter’s advisors, argued that the National Christmas Tree’s permit should also be denied on the same grounds, and the event was allowed to proceed.

Since then, every US president has marked Hanukkah in one way or another.

A delegation of rabbis brought President Ronald Reagan a menorah during a Hanukkah visit in 1984.

Reagan maintained contact with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, throughout his presidency, even declaring his 80th birthday a National Day of Reflection, according to Chabad.org.

President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush learned to play dreidel, a traditional Hanukkah game, in 1990.

Bush invited children to light Hanukkah candles and play dreidel at the Old Executive Building, which sits adjacent to the White House.

President Bill Clinton also celebrated Hanukkah by hosting groups of children in the Oval Office.

Children from local schools and synagogues were welcomed into the Oval Office to light the menorah and play dreidel with Clinton.

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush hosted the first White House Hanukkah party in 2001. It was the first time a menorah lighting ceremony had been held in the White House residence.

The Bushes invited members of their staff and their children to participate in the ceremony, according to the archived Bush White House’s website. The menorah was lit in the Booksellers’ room on the ground floor, and a kosher buffet was served upstairs, The New York Times reported.

“Tonight, for the first time in American history, the Hanukkah menorah will be lit at the White House residence,” Bush said at the ceremony. “It’s a symbol that this house may be a temporary home for Laura and me, but it’s the people’s house, and it belongs to people of all faiths.”

The White House kitchen was made kosher for Hanukkah celebrations starting in 2005.

Making the White House kitchen kosher involves Saran Wrap, tin foil, and vats of boiling water to cover and purify non-kosher surfaces. The chefs use only certified kosher ingredients.

Matt Nosanchuk served as the White House’s associate director of public engagement and liaison to the American Jewish community during Obama’s second term. He told Business Insider that there used to be separate tables for kosher and non-kosher food at Bush’s Hanukkah parties, but one year, the labels were accidentally switched.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, a Chabad rabbi in Washington, DC, who worked closely with the White House staff to prepare kosher food, suggested making the entire reception kosher to avoid confusion in the future, Nosanchuk said.

“Apparently, President Bush said, ‘Do whatever you need to do, it’s fine,’ and Rabbi Shemtov was like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to stay out of the kitchen for 24 hours before the party,'” Nosanchuk said.

Bush also began inviting different Jewish choirs and a cappella groups to perform at the event.

The Kol Zimra a cappella choir performed at a menorah lighting ceremony before the White House Hanukkah reception in 2004.

President Barack Obama continued hosting the White House Hanukkah party every year. In 2013, the party was split into two receptions: one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

The two identical receptions were hosted on the same day, so that the White House kitchen only has to be made kosher once.

“Given how crowded the previous parties had become, they decided to have two,” Nosanchuk said.

That was also the year Thanksgiving coincided with Hanukkah. Obama was presented with a turkey-shaped menorah known as a “menurkey.”

In 2013, then-10-year-old Asher Weintraub invented a “menurkey,” a menorah shaped like a turkey. He raised over $48,000 on Kickstarter to produce and sell them.

“Of course, I said we gotta invite this kid to the White House Hanukkah party,” Nosanchuk said. “We didn’t use the menurkey onstage, but we made sure the kid was up front on the rope line so that he could say hello to President Obama and present him with a menurkey. And President Obama loved the menurkey.”

Obama continued the tradition of inviting college and professional a cappella groups to sing at the event.

Mike Boxer performed with the Jewish a cappella group Six13 at the White House Hanukkah reception in 2016. He told Business Insider the performers usually sing in the foyer outside the party for about an hour, welcoming guests as they enter, and then have a private audience with the president and first lady.

Before meeting the Obamas, Boxer and his group were told to prepare 45 seconds of a song to perform for them. They chose a snippet from “A Hamilton Chanukah,” a medley of songs from the Broadway musical “Hamilton” rewritten with Hanukkah-themed lyrics.

Boxer said that their private concert featured some unexpected guests.

“We look over, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor are peering through the door,” he said. “Barack Obama goes, ‘Come in, come in.’ One of them said, ‘I love this stuff.'”

Notable American Jewish leaders and rabbis were also invited to deliver remarks at the two ceremonies.

In his public engagement role at the White House, Nosanchuk was responsible for the guest list of the Hanukkah reception. Every year, the list was built from scratch to include as many new people as possible.

“I went out of my way to invite people who had never been before, who had done interesting and important and valuable work in the Jewish community or in their broader community,” he said. “There were a wide array of constituencies and groups and individuals who we wanted to engage with and touch during these holiday receptions. The Hanukkah receptions were a subset of that larger group.”

Mordechai Levovitz attended the White House Hanukkah party twice during Obama’s presidency and was impressed with the event’s broad representation of the Jewish community.

Levovitz is the founder of Jewish Queer Youth, a nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ youth from Orthodox, Hasidic, and Sephardic homes. He was invited as a representative of the Jewish LGBTQ+ community, along with other leaders of Jewish LGBTQ+ organizations.

“It was really nice to see great LGBTQ representation there,” he said of the Hanukkah parties he attended. “I felt seen. I saw leaders of every Jewish LGBTQ organization there, and they saw me.”

He told Business Insider that the White House knows how to throw a good Hanukkah party.

“Any Orthodox Jew knows that kosher food can really go either way, especially kosher catering. This caterer does an amazing job,” he said. “There’s a room with a huge smorgasbord of food, and then there’s a cutting board on the side giving out the lamb chops, and that’s where the line is. They are delicious.”

President Donald Trump continued hosting Hanukkah receptions at the White House during his first term, but didn’t invite Democratic lawmakers.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, is Jewish. She converted before marrying her husband, Jared Kushner.

The New York Times reported in 2017 that Trump broke with tradition by excluding Democratic lawmakers from the guest list of what had previously been a bipartisan event. 

In 2020, the Trump White House held indoor Hanukkah parties despite CDC warnings against large gatherings. Trump only attended the evening reception.

Then-chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, told Business Insider in a statement that masks would be required and provided at the events, hand-sanitizing stations would be set up, chefs would serve food from behind plexiglass barriers, and that the guest lists were “smaller.” She did not respond to Business Insider’s questions about the exact number of invited guests. 

The Times of Israel reported that Trump attended only the evening Hanukkah reception, where he falsely claimed that with the help of “certain very important people, if they have wisdom and if they have courage, we are going to win this election.” Joe Biden had already been declared the winner the previous month.

Three days after the party, vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee Tom Mountain was hospitalized with COVID-19, which he attributed to his attendance at the event.

“Let’s put it this way: When I went down to Washington, DC, for the White House Hanukkah event, I was perfectly fine,” Mountain told NBC affiliate WJAR. “And three days later after that event, I was in the hospital … ready to be put on a lifesaving ventilator.”

In 2021, second gentleman Doug Emhoff led the menorah lighting at the White House Hanukkah party and spoke about his Jewish heritage.

“To think that today, I’m here before you as the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president celebrating Hanukkah, in the people’s house, it’s humbling, and it’s not lost on me that I stand before you all on behalf of all the Jewish families and communities out there across our country,” Emhoff said. “I understand that, and I really appreciate it.”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency‘s Ron Kampeas reported that invitations to the in-person White House Hanukkah party on December 1 were sent out a week before the event, and that holiday plans took shape relatively last-minute due to COVID-19 concerns surrounding in-person events.

In 2022, the Bidens added a Hanukkah menorah to the White House Christmas decorations for the first time.

Located in the Cross Hall, the menorah was built by White House carpenters using leftover wood from a Truman-era White House renovation.

In addition to the regular White House Hanukkah gathering on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff hosted the first-ever Hanukkah party at the vice president’s residence.

Trump once again hosted the White House Hanukkah reception in 2025 when he returned for his second non-consecutive term.

“As president of the United States, I will always support Jewish Americans,” Trump said during the celebration, “and I will always be a friend and a champion of the Jewish people.”

Outside the White House, menorah lightings are still held on the Ellipse, and the event has continued to grow in scale.

The National Menorah is now a 30-foot-tall structure that requires a lift from a cherry picker to light.

This year’s National Menorah Lighting, broadcast on C-SPAN, took place on December 14.