--- title: President Trump Pardons Drumstick the Thanksgiving Turkey description: On Tuesday, President Trump bestowed the honor of an official presidential pardon on turkey Drumstick, part of annual tradition. canonical: https://time.com/5033659/trump-turkey-pardon-reax/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-21T18:40:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:54.340Z og:title: The Internet Has Feelings About Trump's Turkey Pardon og:description: It's Drumstick's lucky day og:url: https://time.com/5033659/trump-turkey-pardon-reax/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8c161176ecffce1/6988e69fe76ad25982630064/trump-turkey-pardon-drumstick.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP-TURKEY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Has Feelings About Trump's Turkey Pardon twitter:description: It's Drumstick's lucky day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8c161176ecffce1/6988e69fe76ad25982630064/trump-turkey-pardon-drumstick.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Has Feelings About Trump's Presidential Turkey Pardon  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 21, 2017 6:40 PM UTC  US President Donald Trump pardons Thanksgiving turkey Drumstick in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 21, 2017. US President Donald Trump pardons Thanksgiving turkey Drumstick in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 21, 2017.JIM WATSON—AFP/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 21, 2017 6:40 PM UTC Tuesday was Drumstick’s lucky day, as the 47-pound turkey was bestowed with an [official presidential pardon](http://time.com/5032154/turkey-pardon-2017/) from President Donald Trump in the White House’s Rose Garden. Visitors and press assembled hours before the big moment, curious if the honor would go to Drumstick or his poultry compatriot, Wishbone, who had also been sent to Washington, D.C. for [the annual occasion.](http://time.com/4575217/presidential-turkey-pardon/) The two turkeys enjoyed an evening at a local four-star hotel thanks to their sponsors, the National Turkey Federation, and spent the moments before the pardoning getting [serenaded by a band](https://twitter.com/Olivianuzzi/status/933029948868227072) and visiting [the White House briefing room.](https://twitter.com/CLH45/status/933008687790161921) The White House put it up [to an online poll](https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/932648144348868610) to see which of the two would receive the ultimate on-air honor; 60% of the votes went to Drumstick. Both of the birds, however, will now head off to Virginia Tech’s “Gobbler’s Rest” to live out the rest of their days in slaughter-free peace. But the internet has plenty to say about this year’s pardoning shenanigans, regardless of the outcome — including Trump’s jokes about Obama’s own pardon last year (to Tater and Tot). > [](https://twitter.com/Scavino45/status/933037008158646272) > [](https://twitter.com/smpage/status/933035114220593152) > [](https://twitter.com/chiglinsky/status/933039381518147584) > [](https://twitter.com/daniellevalore/status/933031044118450176) > [](https://twitter.com/utahbug/status/933035722503634944) > [](https://twitter.com/pete%5Fwells/status/933034795466133504) > [](https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/933035814128406530) > [](https://twitter.com/morningmoneyben/status/933036119029174276) > [](https://twitter.com/ThomasJonHarris/status/933038766364782593) President Trump Pardons Drumstick the Thanksgiving Turkey ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5033659/trump-turkey-pardon-reax/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5033659/trump-turkey-pardon-reax/"},"headline":"The Internet Has Feelings About Trump's Presidential Turkey Pardon","datePublished":"2017-11-21T18:40:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:54.340Z","description":"This one's for you, Drumstick","url":"https://time.com/5033659/trump-turkey-pardon-reax/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Thanksgiving","trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8c161176ecffce1/6988e69fe76ad25982630064/trump-turkey-pardon-drumstick.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8c161176ecffce1/6988e69fe76ad25982630064/trump-turkey-pardon-drumstick.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-TURKEY","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-TURKEY","creditText":"JIM WATSON—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5033659/trump-turkey-pardon-reax/","name":"The Internet Has Feelings About Trump's Presidential Turkey Pardon"}}]}] ```