Trump to grant reprieve to ‘Waddle’ and ‘Gobble’ in pre-Thanksgiving turkey pardons

WASHINGTON — Despite having committed no crime, two turkeys will be pardoned by the president on Tuesday, in one of the strangest American traditions of the holidays. 

One of the two turkeys that President Donald Trump will pardon appeared in the briefing room ahead of the Rose Garden ceremony.

The 50-pound bird named Waddle waddled near the podium where press secretary Karoline Leavitt usually addresses reporters.

“Waddle, want to give us a gobble?” Leavitt asked. The turkey obliged.

“Very on message!” Leavitt said.

This year, Trump will pardon turkeys Gobble and Waddle, named through an online vote led by North Carolina students. Usually, the birds are kept secret until a press conference hosted by the National Turkey Federation. But the Trump administration debuted them early this year at a Monday ceremony near the White House. 

Trump plans to bestow ceremonial pardons on the turkeys before flying to his private Florida resort on Tuesday to celebrate Thanksgiving. 

Both turkeys hatched in July and were raised in North Carolina under National Turkey Federation Chairman Jay Jandrain and Butterball contract grower Travis Pittman. After arriving in Washington, they checked into a “luxurious stay” at the Willard InterContinental Hotel.

Once pardoned on Tuesday, both turkeys will return to Raleigh, North Carolina, where they will live at North Carolina State University’s Prestage Department of Poultry Science. They will receive daily care, housing and veterinary support, while helping with agricultural education.

The presentation of a National Thanksgiving Turkey to the White House has been a tradition for more than seven decades.

The tradition dates to 1947 when the National Turkey Federation, which represents turkey farmers and producers, first presented a National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman.

Back then, and even earlier, the gobbler was given for the first family’s holiday consumption. But by the late 1980s, the tradition had evolved into an often humorous ceremony in which the birds are pardoned, given a second chance at life after they are spared from ending up on a family’s Thanksgiving table.

President Kennedy technically pardoned the first Turkey in 1963, although he didn’t actually call it a pardon. 

“We’ll just let this one grow,” Kennedy said, standing next to a turkey with a sign around its neck that read, “Good eating, Mr. President.”

President Ronald Reagan was the first to say he would issue a pardon to a turkey, although it wasn’t a formal ceremony, and as NPR reports, Reagan’s pardoning was an attempt by the White House to distract from the ongoing Iran-Contra scandal.

When the turkey was presented to Reagan in 1987, ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson shouted a question about whether Reagan would pardon Oliver North and John Poindexter, who were involved in the infamous arms deal.

“If they’d given me a different answer on Charlie and his future,” Reagan joked about the bird in front of him, “I would have pardoned him.”

In 1989, as animal rights activists picketed nearby, President George H.W. Bush said, “But let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy — he’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now — and allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.