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.
‘When I first saw their pictures… I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy,’ Trump recalled. ‘But then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people.’
Trump sparked hilarity in the assembled audience, including top cabinet officials like Secretary of War Pete Hegseth 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 wasn’t afraid to ruffle some feathers as he took a shot at Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for being a ‘big, fat slob’, but followed-up with self-deprecatingly admitted, ‘I’d like to lose a few pounds, too.’
The president ripped into the Democratic governor and expressed his fury at ‘a beautiful woman’ who was set on fire on a train in Chicago by a career criminal with 72 arrests to his name. Trump and Pritzker have frequently clashed over crime in his state after the governor rejected the president’s deployment of the National Guard.
Trump took his opportunity in front of a microphone and attentive audience to outline the achievements of his second term, including tough-on-crime policies, the crackdown on illegal immigration and helping negotiate an end to multiple wars.
He was joined in the Rose Garden by First Lady Melania Trump, who wore a leather aviator-style bomber jacket, black turtle neck and a brown herringbone skirt for the ceremony.
First Lady Melania Trump looks on as President Donald Trump pardons Gobble, the official National Thanksgiving turkey, during the White House turkey pardon ceremony on November 25, 2025
From left, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attend Trump’s turkey pardon
Trump pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey Gobble alongside first lady Melania Trump
US Vice President JD Vance holds his Mirabel alongside Second Lady Usha Vance
Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance brought their daughter Mirabel to the turkey pardon at the White House on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. Their sons were not spotted at the ceremony
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, were MAHA-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.
‘They could be fat, but they’re still MAHA,’ Trump insisted.
The president then gave himself a pat on the back for refraining from telling a joke prepared in his remarks about the rotund Chicago Governor.
‘I had a little bit of a Pritzker joke,’ Trump said. ‘I was going to talk about Pritzker and size. But when I talk about Pritzker I get angry… so I’m not going to tell my Pritzker joke.’
‘Some speechwriter wrote some joke about his weight, but I would never want to talk about his weight. I don’t talk about people being fat,’ he said. ‘I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob.’
Trump then admitted: ‘I’d like to lose a few pounds too, by the way. And I’m not going to lose it on Thanksgiving, I’ll tell you that.’
‘I’m going to have a turkey, but it’s not going to be that one,’ he said, pointing to Gobble.
First Lady Melania Trump looks on as her husband pardons Gobble
Trump was joined by Melania, who wore a leather aviator-style bomber jacket, black turtle neck and a brown herringbone skirt
Before the pardon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brought Waddle into the press briefing room with her one-year-old son Nicholas to present the turkey to reporters
Trump bragged that Gobble and Waddle are the largest turkeys ever presented to a president in a pardoning ceremony.
Both 50-pound turkeys will retire to the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, 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.
Besides Bondi and Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were also spotted in the front row of the audience.
Vice President JD Vance was also there and was joined by Second Lady Usha Vance and their daughter Mirabel.
Pam Bondi loses it at the Turkey Pardoning ceremony alongside Pete Hegseth as Trump cracked jokes
Trump and Melania head out for the pardoning ceremony
hite House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and her son Niko welcome Waddle, the alternate to the National Thanksgiving turkey, to the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House
