White House National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation

Trump White House Archived

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the White House National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, which will take place at the White House on Monday (November 21). The official presentation of a turkey to the President each year began in 1947 under President Harry S. Truman. The presentation was partially borne out of a lobbying campaign: the Truman Administration, in an effort to conserve grain for foreign aid campaigns, began promoting “Meatless Tuesdays” and “Poultryless Thursdays” in the autumn of 1947. Not only did American citizens quickly grow frustrated with the (voluntary, but strongly encouraged) restrictions and begin disregarding them in short order, the National Poultry and Egg Board, incensed at the attack on their industry, noted that not only was Thanksgiving on a Thursday (thus making the annual Thanksgiving turkey a taboo), but Christmas and New Year’s Day also landed on a Thursday that year. A truce was called in the dispute in early November, before the Thanksgiving holiday.