Crash Course: Who will pardon Donald Trump?

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He never promised us a Rose Garden

Donald Trump was slapping his name on everything in 10-foot-high, gilt letters well before he even considered occupying the Oval Office. It should come as no surprise that he’s enamored with the power of the presidential pen.

Trump began his second term with sweeping pardons of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol to try to undo his drubbing at the hands of an already out-to-lunch Joe Biden. He’s since stretched the limits of executive power with a host of semi-successful executive orders, vesting himself with more and more power through his oddly uniform and seemingly enchanted John Hancock.

Trump isn’t so much a subscriber to the unitary executive theory as he is a dyed-in-the-wool believer in the power of his own name to get him out of any jam. Given his ability to skate past court orders and criminal convictions throughout his life, who can blame him? He’s always been right on that score, and recent rulings from the Supreme Court indicate that any time he’s been wrong will be retroactively scrubbed from the almanacs.

As anyone who was conscious during the two terms of George W. Bush can tell you, the expansion of presidential power is a one-way ratchet. Trump using the power of his office to pardon reality TV stars and send innocent men to foreign black sites could, in theory, be used to lock away the Trump administration for their obvious and flagrant lawlessness. The second they are no longer in power, a healthy opposition could back the paddy wagon up to Mar-a-Lago. The punchline of the situation is both sickening to hear and obvious in retrospect, like the troupe behind all those depraved acts in that fictional booking office being bluebloods.

Donald Trump will be pardoned for all the crimes he’s committing now, because the people in charge of making sure he faces justice are Democrats. They let him run again after fomenting a failed coup. They let his budget pass without so much as a real fight. They claim the legacy of FDR but are the party of Ford, deathly afraid of power and perennially failing to meet the moment. When the time comes for the next Democratic president to forgive Trump in the name of entirely imaginary national unity, they won’t need the help of an autopen.

What do you think? Is there a Democratic backbencher with the spine to suggest jail time? Will Trump even hand over power if the GOP doesn’t retain the White House in 2028? Sound off in the comments.

Make me smarter …

It didn’t start with Donald Trump

In spite of everything he’ll tell you, Trump didn’t come from nothing. His negation of civil liberties and due process is the end point of decades of conservative policy-making and congressional inaction. Read more.

They said what?

• “A badge of honor”

  CNBC reporter Megan Cassella, on Trump calling her question “nasty” in the Oval Office. Casella asked Trump if he was aware that Wall Street traders had made a meme of his “chickening out” in tough trade talks. The president was saved from having to walk the walk later in the day, when federal judges ruled his blanket tariffs illegal.

• "I was disappointed”

  Elon Musk, on the Republican spending bill. The billionaire said his work at DOGE was being ignored via the “Big Beautiful Bill” in an interview with CBS.

• “They’re getting their ass kicked”

  Trump, on his ongoing fight with Harvard University. Despite recent rulings in the Ivy League school’s favor, the president still believes he can bend America’s oldest institution of higher learning to his will.

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Before you go …

Tulsi Gabbard grows to become Donald Trump's most dangerous attack dog

Trump’s head of National Intelligence is throwing red meat to MAGA’s conspiracist base at a time when few others in the administration can provide wins. Read more.