Trump Pardons Himself — In The Mirror
The Constitution’s presidential pardon power has no express limitation. Just the kind of power Trump loves.
Yet commentators have always assumed the purpose there was for presidents to correct injustices or extend mercy where appropriate. That’s surely what the founders had in mind — not empowering a president to act capriciously or basely. Indeed that’s a standard implicit in every presidential power. Not “the king can do no wrong.” And that still should apply notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s egregious ruling that a president can’t be held criminally liable for anything done under color of official business.
But such niceties and scruples belong to a past America.
A great example of the pardon power as intended is Lincoln who, after much agonized soul-searching, mercifully stopped executions of soldiers for lapses in valor.
In contrast, I’ve previously written how Trump’s mass January 6 pardons were disgraceful from every standpoint. One person heard on the radio actually refused her pardon, saying she’d been misled into joining the Capitol mayhem, and her punishment was just. Even the most violent offenders were freed, who’d assaulted police officers trying to do their duty. So much for Trump and Republicans standing for “law and order.”
But Trump’s pardon rap-sheet is far longer. In his first term he pardoned right-wing political criminals Dinesh D’Souza and Roger Stone, convicted of campaign law violations; his own campaign manager Paul Manafort, guilty of corruption galore (including “conspiracy against the United States”); racist Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, found guilty of defying court orders; his son-in-law’s father, convicted on 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering (including a plot against his own brother-in-law); and Trump even — defying vehement objections of military brass — reversed the court martial verdicts of soldiers guilty — not of mere cowardice as in the Lincoln example — but murderous war crimes.
There’s a new recent pardon spree; look at the DOJ’s own endless list. It includes leading drug criminal Ross Ulbricht, and numerous violent drug offenders (pardoned even while Trump talks up the death penalty for them); a Florida Sheriff convicted of bribe taking; the celebrity Chrisleys found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion; and on and on and on. Many of them after giving him political donations.
It’s not even just MAGA creeps he pardons. He’s done it for Democratic former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, jailed for trying to sell a U.S. Senate appointment. Now he says he might pardon Diddy Combs, for the slimiest behavior imaginable.
In a spirit of whataboutism, yes, President Clinton’s Marc Rich pardon was corrupt too. And Biden’s pardon of Hunter was arguably unseemly. But two (or three) wrongs don’t make a right. And Trump’s got many hundreds.
Besides the obvious conflicts of interest, politicization, influence peddling, and corruption, even practically the sale of pardons, what thread runs through all this? One is his repeated mantra of “treated very unfairly.” He seems to find it somehow unfair for any real criminal to be busted. While bizarrely believing himself, constantly, to be “treated very unfairly” too.
So the picture emerges: Trump is a bad person who psychologically identifies with other “bad hombres.” (That, and “very bad people” are also favorite locutions. It’s called “projection.”) He pardons people not in spite of their crimes, but because of them. Not for mercy, but reward. By saying they should not be punished, he’s saying he shouldn’t be either.
In all this disgusting blizzard of activity, it’s himself he’s really trying to pardon.