From time to time, people question why a person would put their neck on the line for Donald Trump. The answer to that is obvious (at least when he’s the president); it’s because he can literally pardon people of their crimes:

BREAKING WSJ:

Trump has repeatedly promised his top administration officials pardons before he leaves office, according to people who have heard his comments.

“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting.…

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2026

Trump’s criminal enterprise

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Trump is promising to pardon anyone who’s had anything to do with his second administration:

“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting to laughs, according to people with knowledge of the comments. That radius appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.

In one conversation with advisers in the dining room next to the Oval Office last year, Trump said he would host a news conference and announce mass pardons before he left office, some of the people said. The people said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.

As we all know, Trump is prone to just saying things – many of which never come to pass. At the same, Trump is also prone to pardoning people.

In December 2024, the BBC reported that the US President had granted “237 acts of clemency” in his first term (143 pardons and 94 commutations). In that same article, they noted that Trump was kicking off his second term by pardoning/commuting 1,600 individuals who were linked to the botched insurrection of 2021. Trump has continued to grant clemency since then, and there’s little reason to suspect he’ll stop.

Oh, and talking of the botched insurrectionists who got pardoned; it’s notable that several have been re-arrested since. As CREW reported in December 2025:

At least 33 January 6th insurrectionists pardoned by President Trump have been rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes since January 6, 2021, according to new analysis by CREW. Four pardoned insurrectionists have allegedly reoffended since receiving their pardons. Several have argued that the pardon should cover unrelated criminal convictions, and in one case last month, Trump explicitly re-pardoned one insurrectionist for his unrelated weapons charges.

Six of the pardoned January 6th insurrectionists are charged with committing child sex crimes, ranging from sexual assault to possession of child pornography. At least five were charged with illegal possession of weapons, including at least two who had a previous domestic violence conviction. Five were arrested or charged with driving while impaired or under the influence. In two of these cases, the defendant’s reckless driving resulted in a fatality. Two were charged with rape.

Absolute power

This is how Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the WSJ story:

The Wall Street Journal should learn to take a joke, however, the President’s pardon power is absolute

It’s almost like the Yanks didn’t think this pardon power thing through, isn’t it?

That or successive politicians simply pushed things more and more in their own favour to the point where we now have an American king (what you’d call a ‘burger king’ if not for potential trademark infringement).

Featured image the Canary

By Willem Moore

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