Trump gives Thanksgiving turkeys scathing nicknames and calls Pritzker a ‘fat slob’ in fiery White House holiday speech | Daily Mail Online

Donald Trump has pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys, Gobble and Waddle, in the decades-old tradition.

The president joked that he wanted to call them ‘Chuck and Nancy’ after Senate Minority Leader Schumer and former House Speaker Pelosi, but said he couldn’t because he’d never pardon either of his Democratic foes.

Trump sparked hilarity in the assembled audience, including top cabinet officials like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, when he cracked that last year’s pardons were invalid because of Joe Biden‘s autopen.

But the president said not to fret because he found Blossom and Peach en route to slaughter, rescued them and extended them both pardons, as well.

He also took a shot at Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, saying that he would refrain from calling him a ‘fat slob’, and then self-deprecatingly admitted ‘I’d like to lose a few pounds, too.’

Trump also took the opportunity in front of a microphone and attentive audience to outline the achievements of his second term, including tough-on-crime policies and the crackdown on illegal immigration.

He was joined by First Lady Melania Trump, who wore a leather aviator-style bomber jacket, black turtle neck and a brown herringbone skirt.

Karoline Leavitt and her one-year-old son Nicholas met Waddle in the press briefing room of the White House, prior to the turkey pardoning ceremony, and introduced the alternate turkey to the press.

Gobble was named the National Thanksgiving Turkey who received the pardon at the ceremony with the president, but Waddle also received a pardon, as is tradition.

Trump said that Gobble and Waddle, named through a poll on the first lady’s X account, wereMAHA-approved by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

‘Despite their size, Secretary Kennedy has formally certified that these are the first-ever MAHA turkeys,’ Trump said to a chorus of chuckles.

Both 50-pound turkeys will retire to the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Caroline, where they will receive housing and veterinary care for the rest of their lives.

Gobble and Waddle are both males raised by the National Turkey Federation chairman Ronnie Parker on his farm in Goldsboro, NC. Gobble is 52 pounds and Waddle is 50.

The Turkey pardon has roots stemming back to Abraham Lincoln, but it didn’t become an official executive task until 1989 when George H. W. Bush declared a presidential pardon for the National Thanksgiving Turkey.