How Thanksgiving Messages of 2024 Candidates Compare

While politics could be the hot topic at Thanksgiving dinners this year, 2024 presidential candidates are sharing their Holiday messages with Americans, with some differing in subject matter.

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden have both wished Americans a happy Thanksgiving in different ways.

Trump released a video Thursday morning urging Americans not to “lose heart or lose hope,” despite the current state of the U.S., in what he called “a difficult time for our country,” suggesting that a different president would be in the White House this time next year when the 2024 election will have already taken place.

Biden, who is expected to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with his family in Nantucket, celebrated earlier in the week, spending his 81st birthday pardoning turkeys at the White House on Monday.

The president and first lady Jill Biden also gave a brief message speaking with Today show’s Al Roker during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on Thursday via phone, saying, “We’ve made extraordinary progress. There’s nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.

“So today is about coming together, giving thanks to this country we call home, and thanks to all the firefighters, police officers, first responders and our troops, some of whom are stationed abroad. I’ve never been more optimistic, Al.”

Meanwhile, in a post to X, formerly Twitter, former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley shared a photo of herself with her family with a heartfelt Thanksgiving message about family.

“We are missing part of our family today: Michael who is deployed overseas and Rena who is working at the hospital. While on this Thanksgiving Day our family is not together in person, we are together in spirit.

“Thankful for the blessings of faith, family, and country. Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving! Such a reminder of how blessed we are to live in America,” Haley said on X.

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis shared a video to X, noting the political divide in the country while stating that “we are going to turn this country around.”

“I want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln in 1863 in the midst of the civil war put out a proclamation advising the American people to thank God for all the blessings of this country and that was in the midst of the bloodiest battle the country has ever seen,” DeSantis said in a video on X.

“So as we get ready to sit down for Thanksgiving dinner with our family this time, we see the problem with our country, we see that we’ve hit the skids in a lot of different ways, but we should be thankful to be Americans.

“We should be thankful that we live in a country that was founded on principles of human freedom. We are going to turn this country around and we’re going to get the job done,” DeSantis added.

However, taking aim at Trump, Republican candidate and former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie offered a Thanksgiving message that focused on uniting at the dinner table and not letting Trump “divide us.”

“Let’s make sure this Thanksgiving is the last one where we let @realDonaldTrump divide us at the dinner table. Your family and friends are more important than him,” Christie wrote on X.

Meanwhile, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared a photo of himself and his wife baking food, captioning the photo with, “Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!”

Additionally, entrepreneur and Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is on the campaign trail in Iowa, offered a different kind of Thanksgiving message as he spoke of his goals as a presidential candidate in a video shared on X, stating one of his goals was to “offer an alternative vision, not just criticizing what the left puts on.”

“The Left’s commandments: Race, Gender, Sexuality, Climate. We can’t just be against their vision. We must offer our own: Individual. Family. Nation. God,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.