How many total pardons and commutations did Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden issue during their presidencies?
Executive summary
Joe Biden granted far more acts of clemency—driven largely by mass commutations—than any prior president; Pew found Biden’s commutations were more than double Barack Obama’s total of 1,715 commutations [1]. Reporting and compiled lists indicate Trump used clemency far more selectively in his first term but issued mass grants after January 20, 2025, bringing his overall second‑term totals into the thousands in some tallies; independent tallies vary and post‑inauguration actions are ongoing [1] [2] [3].
1. What the authoritative counts measure — “acts of clemency” vs. pardons and commutations
Analysts and government pages distinguish “acts of clemency” (an umbrella term that includes pardons, commutations and other forms) from isolated counts of pardons or commutations alone; Pew’s recent analysis compares presidents using the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s data and emphasizes commutations in comparing Biden to predecessors [1]. The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney maintains lists of “Pardons | Commutations” by president, which is the base dataset used in many media summaries [4].
2. Barack Obama — large commutation program, clear numeric baseline
Barack Obama issued a substantial number of commutations during his two terms; Pew’s comparison cites Obama’s commutation total at 1,715 during his eight years, a widely reported figure used as a benchmark against subsequent presidents’ records [1].
3. Joe Biden — unprecedented numbers driven by commutations
Pew’s 2025 analysis concludes Biden “stands out for the sheer number of commutations he granted,” reporting that Biden’s total commutations exceeded twice Obama’s 1,715 figure; that framing establishes Biden as the leading modern president in commutations, not necessarily in pardons alone [1].
4. Donald Trump — sparse early use, then mass actions and political pardons
Reporting portrays Trump’s first term as relatively restrained on raw counts compared with some predecessors, but his clemency use was politically prominent because many recipients were personal associates or political allies; subsequent second‑term or 2025 actions included mass pardons/commutations (including Jan. 20, 2025 mass actions) and a wave of high‑profile individual pardons that pushed aggregate totals far higher in some compilations [1] [2] [3]. Public databases and media timelines list many post‑2024 clemency actions by Trump that change his overall totals depending on the cutoff date used [2] [3].
5. Discrepancies and why different tallies vary
Different publications report different totals because they use different cutoffs, define “acts of clemency” differently, and include or exclude large, one‑day mass actions or later second‑term grants. For example, a compiled interactive notes combined totals for Obama and Biden as 212 and 80 pardons respectively with combined 5,880 commutations across certain windows, while other sources cite single‑day commutation batches and mass pardons issued on Jan. 20, 2025 as altering presidential totals significantly [5] [2]. Official DOJ lists are the baseline, but media trackers and Wikipedia pages update faster and can reflect post‑inauguration waves that the DOJ’s public pages may lag in listing [4] [2].
6. Legal and political context that shapes the numbers
Counting clemency is not just arithmetic: presidents make choices about using commutation programs (Obama’s drug‑sentence commutations; Biden’s large commutation batches) versus issuing individual pardons. Critics flagged Biden’s use of preemptive pardons for family members and others; Trump’s patterns drew criticism for favoring allies and for bypassing the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which affects transparency and how tallies get reported [1] [3].
7. What the available sources allow us to answer — and what they don’t
Available sources clearly report Obama’s commutation total and characterize Biden as having more than double that number of commutations, and they document Trump’s mass grants on Jan. 20, 2025 and numerous high‑profile later pardons [1] [2] [3]. Precise, final total counts for each president depend on the date of the tally and whether you count only pardons, only commutations, or all acts of clemency; the sources provided do not supply a single, side‑by‑side final table listing “total pardons” and “total commutations” for Trump, Obama and Biden with identical cutoffs [1] [2] [4].
8. How to get a definitive, comparable total
To produce an apples‑to‑apples total, consult the Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney’s “Pardons | Commutations” pages for each president and specify a date cutoff; media analyses like Pew provide context and comparisons [4] [1]. Given the post‑2024 wave of second‑term Trump actions and large Biden commutation batches, any answer must specify the exact cutoff date used [2] [5].
Limitations: this summary uses only the supplied reporting and datasets; available sources do not provide a single, finalized tally that lists total pardons and total commutations for all three presidents with a uniform cutoff date [4] [1].