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Trump and the First Lady Participate in the Thanksgiving Turkey Pardoning, Nov. 25, 2025

November 25, 2025 · The White House · 0:20:28

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hosted the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning at the White House on November 25, 2025. “In a few moments, I will grant a full absolute and unconditional presidential pardon to two handsome Thanksgiving turkeys. And this is their lucky day,” the President said of Gobble and Waddle — “two of the largest turkeys ever presented to an American president. Over 50 pounds each,” raised in Wayne County, North Carolina, as he stated it.

The ceremony ran on comedy: the President joked that a Department of Justice investigation under Attorney General Pam Bondi had determined the prior year’s pardons were signed by autopen and “totally invalid,” announced that last year’s birds, Peach and Blossom, had been located “on their way to be processed” and re-pardoned — “We saved them in the nick of time” — and said he had thought of naming this year’s pair Chuck and Nancy before deciding he “would never pardon those two people.”

Vice President JD Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, and their daughter attended, along with Attorney General Bondi and a row of cabinet secretaries the President introduced from the podium. He thanked the National Turkey Federation’s chairman and the farmer who raised the birds.

Why it matters

The pardoning is the lightest entry in the year’s record and one of the most watched; it also puts nearly the whole team on one patio in one frame, a Tuesday before the week’s harder news. This chronicle files it on the Elections & Governance hub.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump and The First Lady Participate in the Thanksgiving Turkey Pardoning,” November 25, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). Remarks as delivered at the ceremony.