In keeping with a longstanding Thanksgiving tradition, Donald Trump has granted pardons to two turkeys named Gobble and Waddle. During the lighthearted ceremony, the former president quipped that he initially considered naming the turkeys ‘Chuck and Nancy’ after his political adversaries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “When I first saw their pictures, I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy,” Trump reminisced, eliciting laughter from the crowd. He added with a grin, “But then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people.”

The event, attended by top officials including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi, was filled with humor and goodwill. Trump jested about last year’s pardons being invalid due to Joe Biden’s use of an autopen, a remark that drew chuckles from the audience. He reassured attendees, explaining that he had stumbled upon Blossom and Peach, who were on their way to slaughter, and decided to grant them pardons as well. In a moment of self-reflection, Trump took a playful jab at Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, labeling him a “big, fat slob,” before humorously admitting, “I’d like to lose a few pounds, too.”

The president seized the occasion to criticize Governor Pritzker, particularly in light of a disturbing incident in Chicago where a woman was set on fire by a repeat offender with a lengthy arrest record. Trump has frequently butted heads with Pritzker over crime management in Illinois, especially following the governor’s decision to decline federal deployment of the National Guard. Amidst these jabs, Trump highlighted his administration’s second-term accomplishments, including stringent crime policies, immigration crackdowns, and diplomatic efforts to end various conflicts. By his side in the Rose Garden was First Lady Melania Trump, elegantly dressed in a leather aviator-style bomber jacket, black turtleneck, and a stylish brown herringbone skirt for the occasion.

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.

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.