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How many pardons and commutations has Donald Trump issued by November 19, 2025 and how are they categorized?
Executive summary
Donald Trump’s second-term use of clemency has been large and idiosyncratic: on January 20, 2025 he issued a sweeping mass action that pardoned roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack and commuted 14 sentences for some militia leaders [1]. Beyond that mass action, reporting and compiled tallies through mid-November 2025 show dozens of individually named pardons and commutations — Ballotpedia counted 142 pardons and 28 commutations as of Nov. 9, 2025, and Reuters, AP and others documented later high-profile additions such as pardons for Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Changpeng Zhao [2] [3] [4].
1. What the official Office of the Pardon Attorney records show
The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney published a page dedicated to “Clemency Grants by President Donald J. Trump (2025–Present)” and explicitly documents the January 20, 2025 proclamation granting pardons and commutations related to the January 6 events (updated Nov. 17, 2025) [5]. That government page is the primary administrative record referenced by other outlets for the mass January 20 action [5].
2. The big, headline number: the January 20 mass action
Multiple sources describe the inauguration-day action as a near-unprecedented blanket clemency for people charged with January 6 offenses. Wikipedia’s coverage summarizes that nearly 1,600 people were convicted or awaiting trial and that “most of them received full pardons” while 14 sentences of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys members were commuted [1]. Newsweek and other outlets also cite a figure of approximately 1,500 pardons connected to January 6 [6]. These large, round estimates are reported consistently across the record in the available sources [1] [6].
3. How counts and tallies beyond the mass pardon have been compiled
Independent trackers and news organizations have attempted to count individual clemency acts beyond the mass January 20 proclamation. Ballotpedia reported that as of Nov. 9, 2025 Trump had issued 142 individual pardons and 28 commutations in his second term so far, while noting that those figures do not include unnamed recipients covered by mass pardons [2]. Other summaries — including Wikipedia lists and media compilations — report totals that vary depending on whether and how they count the mass, unnamed group pardons [7] [3].
4. Categories used in reporting: pardons, commutations, mass/blanket, and individual
Coverage distinguishes at least four categories: individual pardons (named people such as Changpeng Zhao, Joe Lewis, Rudy Giuliani), commutations (shortening of sentences like George Santos’s commutation reported later in 2025), mass or blanket pardons for broad classes (the January 20, 2025 action for many Jan. 6 defendants), and repeat or corrected pardons (e.g., Dan Wilson pardoned again for separate gun charges) [4] [8] [3] [9]. Reuters and other outlets emphasize that some pardons are symbolic for federal charges and do not affect state charges [3].
5. Discrepancies and why totals differ across sources
Totals differ because sources count different things: government entries list formal clemency grants but may not itemize unnamed recipients within blanket proclamations; watchdogs and news outlets may count every named public proclamation and include or exclude mass-pardon totals [5] [2] [1]. For example, Ballotpedia’s 142 pardons figure explicitly excludes unnamed individuals in mass pardons, whereas Wikipedia narratives describe “roughly 2,500 pardons” or “1,500–1,600” in the January 20 action depending on the version and update [2] [10] [1] [11]. That produces variation in headline counts.
6. Political and reporting context — competing framings
Proponents and White House spokespeople framed many of these acts as correcting perceived injustices and promoting “national reconciliation,” while critics — and outlets like Forbes and watchdog groups — highlight political or financial ties between Trump and many recipients and raise concerns about partisanship in clemency selections [12] [13] [14]. Reuters and CNN note legal limits — federal pardons do not cover state prosecutions — and document legal complications that followed some grants [3] [15].
7. What available sources do not mention
Available sources do not provide a single, undisputed final tally of all pardons plus commutations through Nov. 19, 2025 that reconciles named individual grants with unnamed mass recipients; instead they present overlapping counts and different inclusion rules [5] [2] [1]. Sources also do not contain a universally accepted breakdown by offense category across every clemency grant — reporters list many high‑profile examples but comprehensive offense-by-offense tabulation across all recipients is not provided in the materials here [2] [6].
Conclusion: if you need a single defensible number for “how many” by Nov. 19, 2025, you must choose a methodology: count named individual grants tracked by outlets (Ballotpedia’s 142 pardons/28 commutations as of Nov. 9, 2025 is one such snapshot) or include the mass Jan. 20, 2025 proclamation, which adds roughly 1,500 pardons and about 14 commutations depending on the source you cite [2] [1].