Featured Image Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Staff / via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Social Media, Crime
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Social Media, Crime
Social media users are hitting out at Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving speech, which they said was inappropriate for the kids in the audience.
Trump was caught on film during his speech mentioning crime in Chicago being ‘out of control’, something he’s been vocal about in the last few months as he vowed to crackdown on the crime rates in US cities. However, it was the comments he made after mentioning Chicago that had social media up in arms.
Standing in front of a crowd at the White House yesterday (25 November) ahead of Thanksgiving, Trump carried on the presidential tradition of pardoning turkeys.
The POTUS went on a tangent, however, against ‘liberal judges’ after a woman was set on fire last week in Chicago by a man who allegedly had 72 prior arrests and was out on bond at the time of the crime.
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In his speech, he asked Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to allow his National Guard troops to be let into the cities so they can reform crime.
He also expressed his upset over Bethany MaGee, 26, the woman who was allegedly set on fire by 50-year-old Lawrence Reed.
"This is a very serious thing," Trump said in front of the crowd, which allegedly included children. "They burned this beautiful woman riding in a train. A man was arrested 72 times. 72 times. Think of that. And they'll let him out again, the liberal judges will let him out again."
People online were shocked at the speech, with some taking to X to rant about the subject matter.
One person claimed: “There are little kids in the audience at today's White House turkey pardon, including JD Vance's three year old daughter in the front row - traditionally a light hearted, family-friendly event. And here's what Trump chose to talk about.”
Another wrote: “Deplorable.”
Someone else said: “Wondering what connection this had to Thanksgiving …”
It was during this year's ceremony that Trump pardoned Gobble and Waddle, before pardoning last year's birds, Peach and Blossom, claiming that an ‘investigation’ found that his predecessor Joe Biden hadn’t actually officially done it, and so the animals needed to be re-pardoned.
“I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined that last year’s Turkey pardons are totally invalid,” Trump said, which was met by laughter from the crowd.
“They’re hereby null and void, the turkeys known as Peach and Blossom last year have been located, and they were on their way to be processed. In other words, to be killed.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Tyla: “It’s deplorable that an innocent woman was set on fire in public because of the Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies. And it’s deplorable that ‘social media users’ are more upset that President Trump is calling for law-and-order than they are that an innocent woman was set on fire.”