WASHINGTON — President Trump conducted his yearly turkey pardon ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, noting with a wink that he was once again sparing the birds from last year’s “autopen” reprieve and joking about christening this year’s turkeys “Chuck and Nancy.”
Speaking to the crowd, the president quipped that former President Joe Biden had “used an autopen for last year’s turkey pardons,” dismissing them as “totally invalid.” He added that he’d seen an autopen portrait replace Biden’s picture in the White House photo gallery.
He laughed that the turkeys known as Peach and Blossom were on their way to butchery the previous year, yet he’d decided to halt the process: “They’re no longer headed to the kitchen, and I’m officially pardoning them; they won’t end up on the Thanksgiving plate.”
Among the pardoned birds were Gobble and Waddle, celebrated as the plumpest arrivals of the day.
Trump joked that when the images of the turkeys first appeared, he almost wanted to name them after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He paused, remarking that he would never actually pardon those political figures, adding that “Melania’s input would make no difference.”
These two birds join a long list of Trump’s second‑term clemency actions, with roughly 1,700 pardons issued to date and numerous prison commutations, though the official count has yet to be released.
He added that his team was drafting papers to transport Gobble and Waddle directly through what he called the “terrorist confinement center” in El Salvador, noting that “even those birds don’t want to go there.”
The president also mentioned a joke his staff had planned about Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker, but after reading a story about a woman who was set ablaze on a Chicago train, he chose not to read it, stating that Pritzker’s refusal to work with Trump on a federal crime crackdown was the issue.
Instead, Trump remarked that “the mayor is incompetent and the governor is a big fat slob.”
He later said a speechwriter had crafted a joke about someone’s weight, but he declined to discuss it, “I don’t talk about people being fat. I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob… I’d like to lose a few pounds too, by the way. And I’m not going to lose it on Thanksgiving.”
After the ceremony, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump plan to head to Mar‑a‑Lago to celebrate the holiday.
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