Staff Reports
President Trump used the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon on November 25, 2025, to call out Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker by name, telling the crowd he “refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob” even as he made the dig. The remark came in a rambling but pointed Rose Garden address where the president mixed holiday ritual with blunt political theater.
Trump didn’t stop at insults; he framed his barbs around real public safety failures in Chicago, blaming Democratic leadership for allowing crime to take hold and invoking a violent attack on a commuter as evidence. The president singled out both Governor Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, arguing that soft-on-crime policies are literally costing lives and threatening the city’s future.
Americans are tired of the niceties when their cities are burning and violence is normalized, and Trump’s bluntness is exactly what voters wanted after years of polite excuses. Call it crude, call it unpresidential if you like, but results matter more than tone when the safety of families and small businesses is on the line.
Predictably, Pritzker’s camp tried to change the subject, issuing a statement blaming national economic trends and raising the familiar talking point about rising Thanksgiving costs. That dodge reeks of the same playbook Democrats have used for years: when you can’t defend your record, you manufacture outrage about the messenger.
Let’s be clear — pointing out failures in governance is not “mean,” it’s journalism and leadership. The real story here is not a one-liner at a turkey pardon; it’s the refusal of blue-city elites to accept federal help and to own the consequences of their failed policies.
Trump even worked a little self-deprecating humor into the address, acknowledging he’d “like to lose a few pounds too” while teasing rivals and taking another jab at last year’s pardons by accusing Joe Biden of using an autopen. Whether you love his style or hate it, he used the moment to keep the spotlight on policy failures, not optics.
Patriots don’t want presidents who whisper sweet nothings while our cities decay and our families pay the price. If speaking plainly about the consequences of bad governance offends the elites, so be it — hardworking Americans would rather have a leader who fights for them than one who worries about being politically correct.
