President Donald Trump continued a White House tradition Tuesday by issuing presidential pardons for two turkeys. The lucky birds, fittingly named Gobble and Waddle, will spend the rest of their lives on a farm at North Carolina State University without fear of becoming someone’s Thanksgiving dinner.
The relatively lighthearted event began at the White House press briefing room with press secretary Karoline Leavitt showing off Gobble.
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‘Missing in action’
Waddle did not attend the event. It’s not clear whether the bird’s absence was a political statement.
“Waddle, by the way, is missing in action, but that’s OK,” Trump said. “We’ll pretend Waddle is here.”
During the event, the president said he saved the turkeys “in the nick of time” before joking that former President Joe Biden’s turkey pardon last year was not valid since he used an autopen. Trump has made several remarks about Biden’s alleged autopen use, going as far as to replace Biden’s official portrait in the White House with a picture of an autopen.
He continued joking about top Democrats, saying that they should have named the turkeys Chuck and Nancy, an apparent reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“But then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them,” Trump said. “I would never pardon those two people.”
His comments during the ceremony about Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois — a potential presidential contender in 2028 — were more pointed, calling him a “big, fat slob.”
“Governor Pritzker, if you’re listening, let’s get your act together,” he said. “I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob. I don’t mention it.”
Shifting tones, Trump also spoke about negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
“I think we’re getting very close to a deal. We’ll find out,” he said. “I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress.”
His comments followed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll‘s meeting with Russian officials to discuss a proposal to end the war.
What’s the history of the turkey pardon?
The turkey-pardoning tradition technically began in 1963 with President John F. Kennedy, days before his assassination. Kennedy never called it a pardon, but the Los Angeles Times did, according to NPR.
Before then, people sent the turkeys to the president for Thanksgiving and other important holidays. But President Harry S. Truman was the first to receive a turkey from the National Turkey Federation. The group earlier had sent chickens in protest of Truman’s “Poultryless Thursdays,” a post-war conservation effort to save grain.
The protests later ended, and the federation sent Truman a turkey as a gift.
The first president to say the word “pardon” during the event was Ronald Reagan in 1987, as he commuted the death sentence of a turkey named Charlie. The event was a distraction from the Iran-Contra scandal, according to NPR.
A reporter yelled a question about Oliver North and John Poindexter, who were involved in the arms deal, but Reagan turned the inquiry into a joke about Charlie.
“If they’d given me a different answer on Charlie and his future, I would have pardoned him,” Reagan said.
The modern-day pardon tradition was finally created in 1989, under President George H.W. Bush.
“[L]et me assure you and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table,” Bush said. “He’s presented a presidential pardon as of right now — and allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here.”
