The Long, Absurd History of Presidential Turkey Pardonings

President Donald Trump pardoned a turkey named Peas on Tuesday, and said in his remarks at the White House, “It really has been blessing after blessing after blessing.” The history of turkey pardons is long and strange, harkening all the way back to a forgotten era long ago: 1989, when George H.W. Bush became the first president to establish the “formalities” of pardoning a turkey as part of a pre-Thanksgiving ceremony. But the real history of turkey pardoning starts well before that—perhaps as far back as the Lincoln administration, when he supposedly let his son keep the Christmas bird instead of eating it. Come on a trip through America’s second-most absurd tradition, right after the Electoral College.