He joked about sending the turkeys to an infamous prison in El Salvador that has been used to house migrants deported from the United States. He said the birds should be named Chuck and Nancy \u2013 after Democratic stalwarts Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi \u2013 but \u201cI would never pardon those people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump claimed that last year\u2019s turkey pardons, issued by president Joe Biden, were invalid because he used an autopen. \u201cWhere\u2019s Hunter?\u201d he said, suggesting that his predecessor\u2019s son could once again face legal jeopardy.<\/p>\n
And all of that was before Mr Trump turned his attention to Illinois governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat who has resisted the White House\u2019s plans to deploy the National Guard in Chicago.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump said he had a joke prepared about Pritzker, but \u201cI refuse to talk about the fact that he\u2019s a fat slob. I don\u2019t mention it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTrump used part of his remarks to insist that the price of Thanksgiving meals was dropping<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mr Trump eventually got around to the business at hand, which was pardoning the turkeys Gobble and Waddle.<\/p>\n
But Waddle wasn\u2019t there \u2013 the White House did not immediately respond to questions about the bird\u2019s whereabouts \u2013 and the president proceeded anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cGobble, I just want to tell you this \u2013 very important \u2013 you are hereby unconditionally pardoned,\u201d Mr Trump said. He reached over to run his hand over the feathers, saying, \u201cWho would want to harm this beautiful bird?\u201d<\/p>\n
Waddle had previously been spotted in the White House briefing room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWaddle, want to give us a gobble?\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked. The turkey obliged.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery on message!\u201d Ms Leavitt said.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump used part of his ceremonial remarks to insist that the price of Thanksgiving meals was dropping under his leadership, although his numbers are misleading. Some research indicates that holiday dinners could cost more this year, a reminder of persistent frustration with inflation.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump was planning to fly south to his private Florida resort later last night, a holiday interlude during what has been a turbulent and uncertain chapter of his second term.<\/p>\n
\nMr Trump faced a setback in court this week<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mr Trump is struggling to advance a plan to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine after an earlier version faced swift criticism from European allies and even some Republicans. The US military is also poised to target Venezuela with military strikes, part of an anti-drug operation that could ultimately destabilise the country\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
In Washington, Mr Trump faces the possibility of a splintering Republican coalition ahead of next year\u2019s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. Some members of his party already took the rare step of crossing the president by successfully pushing legislation to force the Justice Department to release more documents about the Jeffrey Epstein case.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump faced a setback in court this week when a federal judge tossed cases against James Comey and Letitia James, two targets of Mr Trump\u2019s retribution campaign.<\/p>\n
Mr Comey, a former FBI director whom Mr Trump fired during his first term, was charged with making a false statement and obstructing Congress. Ms James, the New York attorney general who investigated Mr Trump between his terms, was charged with mortgage fraud.<\/p>\n
Both pleaded not guilty and said the prosecutions were politically motivated, pointing to Mr Trump\u2019s public demands for the Justice Department to punish his enemies.<\/p>\n
The judge said the interim US attorney, a former member of Mr Trump\u2019s personal legal team, who obtained the indictments was illegally appointed.<\/p>\n
However, the decision was made without prejudice, so the Justice Department could try again to charge Mr Comey and Ms James.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He joked about sending the turkeys to an infamous prison in El Salvador that has been used to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,10233,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-201365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-joe-biden","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115616620543718313","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}