The president has reportedly promised mass pardons to administration officials. His misuse of the power goes far beyond what the constitution’s authors intended
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ince returning to office, Donald Trump has issued more than 1,800 pardons – to financial fraudsters, drug kingpins, January 6 insurrectionists and others. Unfortunately, Trump’s pardons don’t begin to conform with Alexander Hamilton’s high-minded vision of how presidents would use pardons.
When the US constitution was being written in 1787, Hamilton, a delegate to the constitutional convention, pushed to give presidents a broad pardoning power, saying presidents would use it with “scrupulousness and caution”. But Trump’s use of that power has been anything but scrupulous and cautious.
Trump has repeatedly granted pardons that either undermine our democracy or involve flagrant conflicts of interest, sometimes pardoning family members of people who gave him big donations. Because Trump has issued many pardons that the authors of the constitution would never have countenanced, the supreme court – for the sake of preserving our democracy and basic rules of ethics – needs to step up and place some limits on Trump’s unchecked and unprincipled use of the pardon power.
