The Rose Garden hosted an unusual decree this Tuesday, as former President Trump formally pardoned Gobble and Waddle, the official White House turkeys. The annual tradition took a sharp turn, however, when the ceremony became a platform for pointed remarks.
Joined by the First Lady, Trump didn’t simply offer clemency to the birds. He launched into a critique of his successor, declaring that the previous year’s turkey pardons, issued by Joe Biden, were officially “null and void.”
The basis for this claim centered around the use of an autopen – a device that mechanically replicates a signature – during Biden’s pardons. Trump asserted that the autopen’s use invalidated not only the turkey pardons, but a wider range of presidential actions taken during that time.
He specifically questioned the legitimacy of numerous pardons granted, with a notable exception. “Hunter’s was good,” Trump remarked, singling out a pardon for Hunter Biden as the single valid action amidst what he described as a chaotic situation.
The fate of Peach and Blossom, the turkeys pardoned by Biden last year, became a central point of the narrative. Trump revealed they had been discovered en route to processing – a euphemism for the Thanksgiving table – and were facing imminent danger.
In a dramatic turn, Trump intervened, halting their journey and extending a full pardon. He declared that Gobble and Waddle, and by extension Peach and Blossom, would be spared from becoming the main course this Thanksgiving, saved “in the nick of time.”
The ceremony concluded with a clear message: the previous pardons were deemed illegitimate, and the current administration was taking decisive action to rectify what they perceived as a grave injustice, starting with the lives of two fortunate turkeys.
