MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: Talking turkey
White House Thanksgiving preparations reveal a president's limits
In today’s letter: Donald Trump tries to laugh off his setbacks, an ally heads to prison, and Jeffrey Epstein’s victims get the last word.
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THE GIST: Pardons, insults, and ankle monitors
As is customary for Thanksgiving, Donald Trump — an experienced hand at pardons — spared the lives of a pair of turkeys yesterday. As he pardoned Gobble and Waddle (Gobble, at least, as Waddle tired of the proceedings and went missing), however, he clearly had other things in mind; he seemed more interested in laughing at the misfortunes of the victims of his policies and insulting and threatening his political opponents.
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 — after Democratic stalwarts Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi — but “I would never pardon those people.”
Perhaps that’s because he was worried not about the turkeys, but about an ally’s desperate attempt at freedom — an attempt gone awry.