Dakota Farmer

A real turkey of a pardon by President Donald Trump

If you missed President Trump pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey from South Dakota, we’ve got the video.

Lon Tonneson, Editor, Dakota Farmer

December 13, 2018

1 Min Read
2 men and a turkey
GOBBLE FREE: President Donald Trump pardoned a special Thanksgiving turkey — the first from S.D. in 70 years.Ag United

Search for the words “pardon” and “President Trump” online, and you’ll probably come up with a lot of news stories that don't have anything to do with farming and ranching.

But shortly after the mid-term elections in November, President Donald Trump pardoned a special Thanksgiving turkey.

For more than 70 years, a National Thanksgiving Turkey has been given to the President of the United States by the National Turkey Federation.  This November marked the first time that the national turkey was been raised in South Dakota. 

The Riverside Hutterite Colony, of Huron, S.D., raised the turkey. Ruben Waldner, the Riverside turkey barn boss, and Jeff Sveen, chairman of the board of Dakota Provisions, who is currently serving as president of the National Turkey Federation, traveled to Washington, D.C., to present the bird to the president.

During the pardoning ceremony, which occurred shortly after the mid-term election, Trump made some jokes about pardoning the turkey. He predicted that even though the two turkeys Riverside brought to the White House would live out their lives at Gobblers Nest of the campus of Virginia Tech, they probably wouldn’t get much rest because the Democrats would subpoena them and that the 9th District Court would probably overrule his pardon.

If you missed the seeing the news about the turkey pardon — and President Trump jokes — you can see CBSN’s video of the event below.

It is kind of entertaining.

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