On Tuesday, President Donald Trump participated in the traditional turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House. This ceremony involves bestowing a ceremonial presidential pardon on a turkey that subsequently lives out its days under close care. Trump didn’t take any questions from reporters at the event, continuing his long streak of refusing to engage with the White House press corps in the aftermath of Election Day. During his remarks, Trump veered between half-hearted jokes interspersed with his own self-aggrandizement and praise for the idea of “America First,” a concept which has driven much of his agenda while in office.
Trump said that “it’s time to remember that we live in a great, great country — the greatest of them all — and there’s nothing even close, as far as I’m concerned,” and later, he mentioned the “America First” concept specifically. “America First” might sound good to Trump rallygoers, but it’s an untenable concept. What about the critical economic development work that has unfolded around the world outside of the U.S.? Would Trump want the country to forge on ahead without these innovative developments? On a basic level, the concept of “America First” comes close to an overt concept of American supremacy — which obviously reeks of racism.
At other points during his remarks at the Tuesday turkey pardoning event, Trump said as follows:
‘Thanksgiving is a special day for turkeys. I guess probably for the most part not a very good one, when you think about it… These two magnificent gobblers were selected from the official presidential flock of 30 turkeys — some real beauties… Like so many presidential flocks, this one started in the great state of Iowa, in what could only have been described as an act of blatant pandering — and by the way, I love the state of Iowa — these two turkeys sought to win the support of Iowans across the state by naming themselves “Corn” and “Cob.”‘
Trump couldn’t even finish the joke about the turkeys pandering to Iowa residents without interjecting something about himself. Watch his comments in full below:
Trump spoke at the turkey pardoning event shortly after abruptly appearing in the White House press briefing room, where he spoke about recent gains at the stock market. These particular gains, it’s worth noting, unfolded after the General Services Administration officially confirmed Biden’s status as the president-elect — meaning that the stock market is booming as Trump is only even more certainly on his way out.
