Critics have warned that the US president has taken an increasingly transactional approach to granting clemency.

Cryptocurrency billionaires. Disgraced politicians. Reality TV stars. And hundreds of political allies.

Since taking office for a second term, United States President Donald Trump has issued more than 1,840 acts of clemency to a range of personalities.

Presidents have long stirred controversy in their choices of people to pardon. But experts argue that the way Trump has exercised his clemency power violates rules and norms in place for more than a century.

Now, they warn that pardons and commutations have become transactional, with Trump using them to reward those loyal to his agenda.

Some beneficiaries have been supporters of his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement, including the hundreds of rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

  • theolodis@feddit.org
    1·
    1 day ago

    I think if you had a normal president, like one that doesn’t do bad things on a daily basis, people would absolutely go crazy for pardoning the wrong people. But now everything is a distraction for everything else, and nobody knows where to look anymore, so nobody is outraged anymore out of confusion.