Watch President Trump Enthusiastically Greet ‘Drumstick’ Before The Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon

In keeping in with the presidential tradition, on Tuesday afternoon Donald Trump, flanked by First Lady Melania Trump and his youngest son Barron, participated in the Thanksgiving turkey pardon — a ceremony held on the White House lawn every year. This year the two lucky turkeys, aptly named Drumstick and Wishbone, are being sent to live out their days in a sanctuary at nearby Virginia Tech.

After congratulating himself for being a nicer president than Harry Truman, who did not pardon any turkeys, Trump got onto the business at hand. “Over the past 10 months, Melania and I have had the pleasure of welcoming many, many special visitors to the White House,” Trump said, reading off a teleprompter. “We’ve hosted dozens of incredible world leaders, members of congress, and along the way, a few very strange birds.”

“But we have yet to receieve any visitors quite like our magnificent guests of honor today, Drumstick,” Trump continued. “Hi Drumstick,” the President of the United States then said. “Oh, I think Drumstick is going to be very happy.”

Of course. Of course Trump couldn’t get through the pardoning of the turkeys without doing or saying something awkward, and as such “Drumstick” almost immediately began trending on Twitter, and everyone had the same reaction.

https://twitter.com/andy_schauer/status/933036696806989824

https://twitter.com/CillizzaCNN/status/933034164932300800

https://twitter.com/kaleidoscope__7/status/933036059394564096

Others had jokes about the pardoning:

https://twitter.com/itsa_talia/status/933036761877499904

What a day. You can watch the entire pardoning below via Trump’s Twitter: