President Harry S. Truman fingers the wattle of a 35-pound tom turkey from Oregon in the White House Rose Garden on Nov. 18, 1952. (Photo: Henry Griffin/AP)
The presidential pardon of the Thanksgiving turkey has become an annual event, but the peace pact between the fowl and the White House is a relatively new thing. And in fact, a few presidents actually ate their guests!
The first president to unofficially pardon a turkey was Abraham Lincoln, who instructed the White House to save a bird given to the president. Lincoln’s son had grown fond of the bird (and the president was a big animal lover).
But Lincoln didn’t start a tradition, and neither did President Harry S. Truman, who is often credited as the father of the presidential turkey pardon. (NationalConstitution Center)
Here’s a look back from Truman to Biden.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower seems highly pleased with the 43-pound Kentucky colonel turkey presented to him at the White House on Nov. 17, 1954. (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images)
Eisenhower with the 40-pound, broad-breasted tom turkey presented to him on Nov. 19, 1956. (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images)
President John F. Kennedy admires a 55-pound turkey, which wears a sign reading “Good Eating, Mr. President!,” on Nov. 19, 1963. (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images)
President Lyndon B. Johnson was presented with this 40-pound broad-breasted white tom turkey on Nov. 16, 1967. (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images)
President Richard Nixon gives the annual pardon to a Thanksgiving turkey on Nov. 19, 1969. (Photo: Wally McNamee/Corbis/Getty Images)
President Gerald Ford is presented with a Thanksgiving turkey on Nov. 20, 1975. (Photo: U.S. National Archives)
First lady Rosalynn Carter and first daughter Amy Carter pardoning a turkey on Nov. 21, 1978. (Photo: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum)
President Ronald Reagan and the annual pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey on Nov. 21, 1988. (Photo: NY Daily News via Getty Images)
President George H.W. Bush pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey on Nov. 24, 1992. (Photo: Ron Edmonds/AP)
President Bill Clinton looks on as turkey industry executive Robert Strickler holds a 50-pound turkey presented to the president on Nov. 23, 1994. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP)
Clinton with a 35-pound turkey, wearing a White House visitor's pass, which was presented to him on Nov. 27, 1996. (Photo: Doug Mills/AP)
Clinton, holding his nephew Tyler, 6, pardons a turkey on Nov. 22, 2000. (Photo: Kenneth Lambert/AP)
President George W. Bush pardoning a turkey on Nov. 19, 2001. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
President George W. Bush pardoning a turkey on Nov. 17, 2004. (Photo: Ron Edmonds/AP)
President George W. Bush in the Rose Garden of the White House on Nov. 22, 2006. (Photo: Chuck Kennedy/MCT via Getty Images)
President Barack Obama, with daughters Malia, far right, and Sasha, pardons a turkey on Nov. 25, 2009. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Obama, with Sasha and Malia, pardons a turkey on Nov. 23, 2011. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Obama, with Sasha and Malia, pardoning a turkey on Nov. 21, 2012. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Obama, with his daughters, at the turkey pardoning ceremony on Nov. 26, 2014. (Photo: Larry Downing/Reuters)
Obama pardoning a turkey on Nov. 25, 2015. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
Obama after pardoning a turkey, as the president’s nephews Aaron Robinson and Austin Robinson watch, Nov. 23, 2016. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
President Donald Trump at the turkey pardoning ceremony, as son Barron Trump and first lady Melania Trump look on, Nov. 21, 2017. (Photo: Jim Bourg/Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a presidential 'pardon' to the National Thanksgiving Turkey Butter during the traditional event with first lady Melania Trump (R) in the Rose Garden of the White House Nov. 26, 2019 in Washington. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
First lady Melania Trump (R) looks on as US President Donald Trump gives the National Thanksgiving Turkey "Corn" a presidential pardon during the traditional event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 24, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
President Joe Biden pardons the turkey 'Peanut Butter' during the White House Thanksgiving turkey pardon in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on November 19, 2021. (Olivier Doulliery/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. President Joe Biden pardons Chocolate, the National Thanksgiving Turkey, as he is joined by the 2022 National Turkey Federation Chairman Ronnie Parker and Alexa Starnes, daughter of the owner of Circle S Ranch, on the South Lawn of the White House November 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. Chocolate, and the alternate, Chip, were raised at Circle S. Ranch, outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and will reside on the campus of North Carolina State University following today's ceremony. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden pardons the National Thanksgiving turkey Liberty during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on November 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. The 2023 National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate Bell, were raised in Willmar, Minnesota and will be housed at the University of Minnesota after their pardoning. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
U.S. President Joe Biden (R) pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey Peach, alongside Chair of the national turkey federation John Zimmerman and his son Grant during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on November 25, 2024 in Washington, DC. Peach, and the alternate turkey Blossom, were raised in Northfield, Minnesota, and continue a White House tradition going back to the Truman administration in 1947. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Iran’s parliament has enacted a harsh new modesty law, significantly tightening existing dress restrictions that have already fueled nationwide protests and posed a serious challenge to regime stability.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) scoffed at the proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, labeling the agency “unconstitutional and illegal” during a Thursday appearance on “CNN Newsroom.” “You know, they haven’t asked to meet with me, but the impoundment of funds that have been appropriated by the Congress is…
The reach and credibility of international law is at its lowest in years as governments dismiss arrest warrants in some of the most high-profile cases to come before the International Criminal Court.
In a televised address on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron blamed an alliance of the far right and far left for the historic no-confidence vote that toppled the government a day earlier. Macron vowed to stay on until the end of his term in 2027 and said he will name a new prime minister in the coming days. French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation Thursday following the resignation of ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier, a day after a historic no-confidence vote at the Nat
"Speaker Johnson! Nancy Mace! Our bodies are no debate!" chanted Chelsea Manning, who was among those arrested for protesting the GOP’s attacks on trans people.
The loss of the Senate by the Democratic Party may lead to a permanent Republican Senate, limiting the enactment of broad campaign promises, entrenching the perception of dysfunction in Washington, and ensuring the conservative majority on the Supreme Court remains.
Elon Musk warned lawmakers Thursday at the Capitol that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force would be keeping a “naughty or nice” list of members who do and don’t support his federal budget-cutting efforts. DOGE, heading by both Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, is expected to work with the White House Office of Management and Budget—headed by incoming director Russ Vought, who held the same role during Donald Trump’s first term. The majority
THE TRUMP TRANSITION : Is the president in his YOLO era? Andrew Feinberg explains what the president can and can’t do in his lame duck period — and what’s most likely
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) is emerging as a tough confirmation lift for President-elect Trump, even as other nominees such as Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for the Pentagon, run into serious hurdles. Gabbard, Trump’s pick to become director of national intelligence, has received less attention in recent days compared to Hegseth — who has seen…
A gunman shot at a prominent Sikh politician outside the Golden Temple in northern India on Wednesday before police caught and arrested him, in a scare at the popular site that witnessed a bloody clash between Sikh militants and troops four decades ago. The politician, Sukhbir Singh Badal, former deputy chief minister of Punjab state, was unharmed. The shooter, identified by police as Narain Singh, 68, was seen in TV footage from news agency ANI walking to the entrance of the temple in Amritsar city, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, and stealthily removing a gun from his pocket to fire at Badal.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Wednesday he’d like to cut government spending for PBS and for Planned Parenthood, but he noted he might face some push back from Congress first. “I would like to. That’s for sure,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” when asked whether he…
Republican senators warn incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) ambitious proposal to tackle President-elect Trump’s agenda faces an array of disagreements within their party over strategy and policy. Republican senators are broadly amenable to moving quickly on a budget reconciliation bill that would provide funding to complete construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, to…
After the pardon of his son, Hunter, many are encouraging Biden to take a look at federal death row, where a number of men and women await execution, reports John Bowden
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Thursday to take on the “alliance of naysayers” and the bureaucratic “nonsense” that have hampered construction projects in the U.K., as he outlined a series of new pledges that he hopes will change the narrative on his five-month-old government following a slide in its approval ratings. In a speech at Pinewood Film Studios west of London, Starmer said his “Plan for Change” represented the next phase of his center-left Labour government, which was elected in a landslide victory in July on a promise to get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service. While Starmer's office insisted that the speech was not a relaunch, Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party said it was an “emergency reset” by a floundering administration that "doesn’t know what it is doing.”
(Bloomberg) -- Emmanuel Macron is looking for another prime minister on Thursday after the far right joined forces with the left to push through a no-confidence motion against his government over a budget dispute.Most Read from BloombergAs Wars Rage, Cities Face a Dark New Era of Urban DestructionKansas City Looks Back on its Long, Costly Ride With MicrotransitRiyadh Metro Partially Opens in Bid to Ease City’s Traffic JamsThe French president needs to find a premier who can pass a 2025 budget th
