WASHINGTON—In a stunning show of executive authority, President Donald Trump today exercised the power granted to him under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution “to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States.”
The lucky duck was a turkey named Gobble. Unlike in previous years, those assembled in the Rose Garden on this drizzly Tuesday morning knew which bird would be spared right away: First Lady Melania Trump’s office asked Americans to choose which bird her husband would pardon, and he alone was present at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Gathered on the dais were a who’s-who of the Trump Cabinet: Vice President JD Vance with his wife, Usha, and their children; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“This is a big day, a pardon day for a very important beast,” Trump said, prompting a gobble from Gobble. “That’s a well-trained turkey. See how happy he is?”
At one point during the event, Weather Report’s 1977 jazz fusion hit “Birdland” played over the Rose Garden speakers, a clever musical wink for those who caught the tune.
Trump joked that when he first saw a picture of Gobble and runner-up Waddle, he wanted to “call them Chuck and Nancy,” a reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump jokes that he wanted to call today’s turkeys Chuck & Nancy💀😂
“I shouldn’t say this. I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy, but then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people.” pic.twitter.com/LT49QgTnJU
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 25, 2025
“But then I realized I wouldn’t pardon those two people. I would never pardon them, I don’t care what Melania would tell me.”
Schumer and Pelosi weren’t the only Democrats to draw a presidential jab at the ceremony. Touting his administration’s success in cracking down on crime in Washington and Memphis, Trump called on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to allow them to do the same in Chicago.
“Governor Pritzker, if you’re listening, let’s get your act together,” Trump said before noting that he would not “talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob.”
“I don’t mention it,” Trump said, adding that “I’d like to lose a few pounds.”
“But I’m not gonna lose it on Thanksgiving, I’ll tell you that. Because I’m gonna have a turkey, but it’s not gonna be that one.”
Trump also joked that all of President Joe Biden’s turkey pardons were null and void because his predecessor signed them with an autopen — but that he intervened to spare last year’s turkeys, Peach and Blossom, from the slaughterhouse.
🚨@POTUS declares last year’s presidential turkey pardons INVALID because Biden used an autopen.😂
Thankfully, he intervened and granted Peach and Blossom a valid pardon to kick off today’s ceremony. pic.twitter.com/BaxdOaLhIZ
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 25, 2025
Waddle, who Trump joked was “missing in action,” also received a presidential pardon and will step up as the National Thanksgiving Turkey should Gobble be unable to discharge his duties.
“Gobble, you’re pardoned!” the president said, evoking his famous television catch phrase.
About an hour before the pardon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ushered Waddle into the briefing room to meet the White House press corps. Leavitt stood by with her son (wearing a “Mama’s Little Turkey” shirt) as an excited press pool shouted questions at Waddle.
One journalist immediately asked if Waddle had a comment on Ukraine. The turkey had no comment.
Waddle and Karoline Leavitt’s son, Niko (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
After departing the White House grounds today, Gobble and Waddle will return to their home state of North Carolina, where they will take up residence at NC State University alongside Chocolate and Chip, the turkeys Biden pardoned in 2022.
Alex Davidson, Senior Director of Public Affairs at the National Turkey Federation, said that Gobble and Waddle will be “agricultural ambassadors for the rest of their lives.”
Davidson also gave The Daily Wire the inside scoop on how the turkeys are selected. Every year, the National Turkey Federation’s rotating chairman designates a state from which the turkeys will hail — generally the chairman’s home state. The current chair, Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain, picked North Carolina, “the second largest turkey state in the country, after Minnesota,” Davidson says.
This year’s presidential flock was raised by Travis and Amanda Pittman of Wayne County (“I like Wayne County,” Trump remarked when thanking the Pitmans, noting that he did well there in the last election).
Davidson says that presidential turkeys are selected at a young age and raised just like any other bird, though they are given early exposure to lights and music to prepare them for the hustle and bustle of the national stage.
As pardon day gets closer, the flock of around 50 birds is whittled down to two finalists. According to the National Turkey Federation, the winning turkeys are those that have the best “physical appearance and temperament,” proof that looks matter, even in Washington.
Trump also touted the cost of turkey and other Thanksgiving foods. Turkey prices are down 16% from last year, according to a new report from the American Farm Bureau Federation. All told, the cost of an average Thanksgiving dinner is down 5% from 2024.
It’s generally held that Abraham Lincoln performed the first turkey pardon when he spared a bird at the request of his son, Tad. But the turkey pardon really traces its roots back to 1947, when the National Turkey Federation sent a 47-pound bird to President Harry Truman, a peace offering after the group sparred with the White House over postwar poultry rationing.
John F. Kennedy is said to have given the first presidential turkey pardon, remarking “we’ll just let this one grow.” But as with most good things in Washington, the pardon tradition really took shape under Ronald Reagan.
After being grilled about pardons for those involved in the Iran-Contra scandal during a 1987 press conference with Charlie the Turkey, the Gipper quipped that, had he not been assured Charlie would head to a children’s farm, he “would have pardoned him.”
Since 1989, turkeys have been pardoned in an official White House ceremony, a tradition begun by President George H.W. Bush. Today, the pardon is just a high point in a long series of events for the turkeys, who are brought to Washington a few days early to make the rounds with the media. Gobble and Waddle reportedly did 20 interviews on Monday, before turning in for a night at the Willard InterContinental Hotel.
The hotel staff loves when the turkeys check in, Davidson says — and apparently the fowl are not that foul, as far as these things go. The National Turkey Federation prepares their swanky suite with layers of plastic and wood chips, and federation staffers clean up after the birds head up to Pennsylvania Avenue.
“We leave it like we found it,” Davidson said.
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