Trump’s pardons during his present term as potus
Executive summary
President Trump’s second-term use of clemency has been expansive: on Inauguration Day he issued a mass pardon covering nearly everyone charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack—reported as roughly 1,500–1,600 people—and by mid‑2025 his administration had granted many high‑profile individual pardons including business figures and political allies [1] [2]. Critics and watchdogs say the pattern departs from Justice Department clemency norms and favored donors, allies and January 6 participants; defenders call the moves corrective for perceived politicized prosecutions [3] [4].
1. A singular opening move: the mass Jan. 6 pardon
On his first day back in office Trump issued a blanket proclamation that pardoned nearly everyone charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol breach—reports place the number between about 1,500 and 1,600 people—an act described as both historic in scale and central to his clemency agenda [1] [2]. The White House framed this as correcting an overreach of the justice system; opponents in the courts and legal community called it an unprecedented use of pardon power that some federal judges and prosecutors criticized as undermining accountability [2].
2. High‑profile individual pardons: business leaders, donors and allies
Beyond the mass Jan. 6 action, Trump has issued high‑visibility pardons to corporate figures and political allies. Reporting highlights pardons for people like Trevor Milton of Nikola and other wealthy defendants—cases that have drawn attention because of large political donations made by pardoned figures or their families soon before clemency was granted [3] [5]. Watchdog groups catalogued a string of pardons involving politicians and operatives with prior ties to Trump, raising questions about political favoritism [6] [4].
3. Numbers and aggregation: how many clemencies so far
Different trackers count clemency in different ways: one news tracker reported 142 individual pardons and 28 commutations as of Nov. 9, 2025, while other sources and aggregations note the mass unnamed recipients of the Jan. 20 pardon push total counts far higher—Wikipedia and multiple outlets place the cumulative clemency impact in the thousands when counting the Jan. 6 blanket action [7] [8] [2]. Discrepancies reflect whether unnamed beneficiaries of mass pardons are listed individually and whether commutations are tallied alongside pardons [7] [2].
4. Legal ripple effects and expert concerns
Legal experts and some judges told reporters the Jan. 6 pardons and other broad grants could have downstream consequences: they may complicate prosecutions, embolden similar conduct by removing personal risk, and raise novel constitutional questions about the boundaries of presidential clemency [2] [9]. The Guardian and other outlets flagged the possibility that certain pardons could be interpreted broadly, potentially shielding conduct beyond named recipients—an interpretation that legal scholars are debating [9].
5. Process and personnel changes inside DOJ
Multiple outlets documented changes to the traditional clemency process: the Office of the Pardon Attorney was bypassed or reshaped, and political loyalists were installed in advisory roles, according to reporting and Senate testimony—moves that watchdogs say eroded procedural safeguards intended to vet applicants for remorse, restitution and public safety [8] [3]. The Marshall Project and other outlets argue these departures from DOJ norms signal a deliberate shift toward politicized selection of pardons [3].
6. Critics, defenders and competing narratives
Critics characterize the pardons as favoritism and say they create a “pardon market” benefiting donors and allies; media investigations and watchdog groups compiled lists linking recipients to political or financial ties [5] [4]. Defenders present the clemencies as redress for politically motivated prosecutions and an exercise of constitutional prerogative to check prosecutorial overreach—an argument advanced by administration spokespeople and some allies in public statements [2] [1].
7. International and exceptional cases
Trump has signaled or acted to pardon foreign figures and former foreign leaders, including an announced plan to pardon former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is serving a U.S. sentence—moves that introduce diplomatic considerations and drew international coverage [10]. Such cases broaden the scope of clemency beyond domestic political allies and raise separate legal and foreign‑policy questions [10].
8. What the record shows — and what reporting does not
Available sources document a rapid, large‑scale use of clemency focused on Jan. 6 defendants, donors, corporate figures and political allies, and they document departures from traditional DOJ clemency practices [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not mention a definitive, comprehensive official list that reconciles every individual count across mass pardons and individually named pardons in one canonical table; different outlets and repositories use different counting methods and emphases [7] [8].
Limitations: this summary relies on the reporters, watchdogs and government postings provided; figures vary by methodology and sources disagree on interpretation and motive, so readers should compare primary documents (the Justice Department clemency page) [11] with investigative reporting from outlets cited above [1] [3] [7] to reconcile totals and legal analyses.