Has trump pardoned more people than Biden?

1. What "pardoned more people" really asks — pardons vs. acts of clemency

The question requires a definition: some sources count only individual pardons, others count the broader category of “acts of clemency” (pardon plus commutation), and presidents sometimes issue mass or collective actions that change the arithmetic; reporting notes Biden’s record totals are largely driven by thousands of commutations and category-wide pardons while Trump’s headline-grabbing moves include large group pardons tied to Jan. 6 ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

2. The headline totals: Biden’s scale versus Trump’s tally

Pew’s analysis reports that Biden issued 4,245 acts of clemency over his four years — more than any prior president in the modern record examined — and that Trump’s total is far lower by comparison ^[1]. Other outlets put Biden’s total even higher when including late, collective actions — one roundup cites 8,064 clemency actions tied to Biden’s term when counting certain proclamations covering thousands of individuals ^[2]. By contrast, Trump’s cumulative numbers reported across outlets range from roughly 1,700 to about 1,800 after he issued mass pardons for Jan. 6 defendants and added individual pardons in his second term ^{[2] [3] [7]}.

3. How mass and preemptive pardons reshape the numbers

Biden’s large end-of-term commutations — including a widely reported single-day commutation of roughly 1,499 people and separate commutations covering thousands for nonviolent drug offenses — made a dramatic numerical difference and are why his total eclipses predecessors in many counts ^{[2] [4]}. Trump’s mass pardons have likewise been numerically significant — approximately 1,500 Jan. 6-related pardons were reported — but even adding those to his earlier first-term clemency actions leaves his overall count far short of Biden’s highest reported totals ^{[5] [6] [2]}.

4. Context: visibility, politics and the meaning of totals

Observers and former pardon officials emphasize that raw counts don’t capture political choices, legal impact, or whether pardons were preemptive, targeted at allies, or issued for broad criminal-justice goals; critics say Trump’s clemencies were unusually political and focused on allies, while Biden’s final actions were framed as mass remedies for nonviolent drug convictions and preemptive protections for officials ^{[8] [3] [6]}. Independent fact-checkers and analysts also note that, historically, other presidents quietly granted thousands of clemencies; what stands out here is not just volume but the publicity and partisan framing ^[9].

5. Bottom line and limits of the reporting

Based on the aggregated reporting, Biden granted more people clemency overall than Trump did: Biden’s totals are reported in the multiple-thousands (4,245 in Pew’s count, and higher in other tallies), while Trump’s post-2025 surge brings him to roughly 1,700–1,800 pardons by several accounts ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The reporting differs in terminology and scope (pardons vs. commutations vs. acts of clemency), so exact head-to-head comparisons depend on which metric is chosen; the sources cited here do not agree on a single universal number but consistently show Biden’s totals exceed Trump’s under the common measures used ^{[1] [2] [4]}.