Former President Donald Trump issued several Thanksgiving messages on Thursday, with one giving thanks to God and praising the troops in a solemn and hopeful voice—and a second one that’s fiery and flippant in tone as he mocks his political opponents and accuses “Radical Left Lunatics” of trying to destroy America.
President Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Thursday to deliver two very contrasting Thanksgiving messages.
His wishes extend to New York District Attorney Letitia James, who is leading a fraud investigation into President Trump (which he claims is political) in a Manhattan court. In the message, the former president called her “Racist & Incompetent” while accusing her of letting “Murder & Violent Crime FLOURISH & Businesses FLEE.”
President Trump also singled out “Radical Left Trump Hating” Judge Arthur Engoron, the presiding judge in the Manhattan case. The former president accused Judge Engoron of treating him unfairly when he ruled that the former president was guilty of fraud by allegedly overstating the value of his assets even before trial.
He also took aim at President Joe Biden, whom he called “Crooked” and accused of having “WEAPONIZED his Department of Injustice” against a political opponent and “allowed our Country to go to HELL.”
President Trump also extended Thanksgiving wishes to “all the other Radical Left Lunatics, Communists, Fascists, Marxists, Democrats, & RINOS, who are seriously looking to DESTROY OUR COUNTRY.”
He ended on an upbeat note, telling his supporters to have no fear as “we will WIN the Presidential Election of 2024, & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Second Thanksgiving Message
In his second Thanksgiving message, this one in video format, the former president gave thanks to the creator and praised the men and women in uniform who serve and protect the United States.“Today as we gather with our loved ones we give thanks to almighty God for his many blessings, including our families, our friends, our neighbors and this extraordinary country that we all call home,” President Trump said.
“I also want to send our deep gratitude to all of the patriots serving our nation in uniform this Thanksgiving, including the members of the U.S. armed forces, the heroes of border patrol and law enforcement, ICE, and everybody that works so hard to preserve our system and our country, and working to defend our southern border, and our police and first responders in communities all across America,” he continued.
The former president then went on to call the current times “difficult” for the nation, hinting at the various issues facing the country, including deep political divisions and the illegal immigration crisis along the southern border.
“But do not lose heart or lose hope because by the time we celebrate next Thanksgiving our nation will be well on its way to being stronger, safer, more prosperous, and greater than ever before,” President Trump said, looking to end on a hopeful note.
Biden Campaign’s Thanksgiving Talking Points
President Joe Biden also issued a proclamation on Wednesday, declaring Nov. 23, 2023, to be a “National Day of Thanksgiving,” while calling for unity.However, President Biden and the Biden-Harris campaign issued several contrasting statements, including one that calls for national unity (“stop the rancor”) and another that is a set of Thanksgiving dinner talking points to counter “crazy MAGA nonsense.”
“This Thanksgiving we are grateful for our Nation and the incredible soul of America. May we all remember that we are the United States of America—there is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together,” President Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
“I encourage the people of the United States of America to join together and give thanks for the friends, neighbors, family members, and strangers who have supported each other over the past year in a reflection of goodwill and unity,” he added.
Then, on Thursday, President Biden called into NBC News to express a similar message.
“We should focus on dealing with our problems and being together and stop the rancor. We have to bring the nation together and treat each other with a little bit of decency, and I think that’s where the vast majority of the American people are,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris campaign released a set of Thanksgiving dinner talking points (in a very different tone than the other messages of unity) called “Your Handy Guide for Responding to Crazy MAGA Nonsense This Thanksgiving.”“No he didn’t,” the message claims. “All he did was separate families, put children in cages, and leave behind a broken immigration system for Joe Biden to clean up,” it continues, rehashing the “broken immigration system” claim made repeatedly by members of the Biden administration when accused of adopting “open border” policies by undoing Trump-era policies like building a wall or ending the Remain In Mexico program.
Then, taking an alarming tone, the message claims that if President Trump wins the 2024 election, he'll make the immigration crisis worse by “rounding up Latinos into mass detention camps, ending birthright citizenship, and shooting people at will.”
While President Trump has repeatedly vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, he has never advocated for “shooting people at will,” as the Biden-Harris message claims.
A book published by two New York Times journalists in 2019 claimed that President Trump asked about the legality of U.S. soldiers shooting migrants in the legs.
The book, titled “Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration,” by reporters Michael Shear and Julie Davis, also claimed that the former president privately talked about harsh security measures along the southern border like “fortifying a border wall filled with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes and alligators” while wanting the wall to be “electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh.”
When the book came out, President Trump denied wanting to have such extreme forms of deterrence.
Other talking points include how to push back the claim that “the economy was better during Trump.”
Stunningly, the message also seeks to counter criticism of President Biden for soaring inflation, which in June 2022 hit a multi-decade high of 9 percent year-over-year.
“Inflation is the lowest it’s been in two years, the economy is growing, and unemployment has been under 4 percent for the longest stretch on record,” the talking point states, while crediting President Biden for having “created nearly 14 million jobs” but failing to mention that most of these jobs were simply positions that were being recovered from the pandemic.
With inflation running at 3.2 percent in October, it’s true that now it’s the lowest in two years, although it remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
High-Stakes Election
In a separate video message, President Trump characterized the choice facing voters next year as one between “war, poverty, and weakness” under President Biden or “peace, prosperity, and strength” under a second Trump presidency.“The stakes in this election could not be higher. Next November, you have a choice between war, poverty, and weakness under Crooked Joe Biden, or peace, prosperity, and strength under President Donald J. Trump,” the former president said.
He touted his record on the economy and the shape of Americans’ personal finances, which have taken a hit after many months of high inflation under the current administration.
“Just three years ago, our economy was booming, the world was safe and America was strong. Annual incomes went up by more than $6,000 under the Trump administration and they went down by about $6,000 under the horrible Biden administration, the worst in the history of our country,” he said.
“The 30-year mortgage rate reached a record low of 2.65%. We had no inflation. We had gasoline down to $1.87 per gallon,” he continued.
“Under Crooked Joe Biden, the economy is in shambles and the world is going up in flames. Real incomes have gone down by $7,400 per family. Under Crooked Joe, gas prices are $4, $5, $6, and $7 a gallon. Cumulative inflation is nearly 20% percent and mortgage rates are pushing a brutal 7%, 8%, 9%, 10% and you can’t get the money,” the former president said.
President Trump also pointed to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, claiming that, under President Biden’s leadership, America is “stumbling into World War III.’
“That’s what’s going to happen with this leadership because they don’t know what they’re doing. The contrast could not be more stark. The road back to peace, stability, prosperity, and security for your family begins with a landslide Trump victory in 1 year from now,” he claimed.
“We will make America great again, greater than ever before,” he said.
