Trump said he would consider pre-emptive pardons to protect Elon Musk and other close aides should Democrats take control of Congress

Donald Trump said he would be willing to protect Elon Musk and his staff if Democrats take control of Congress after the midterm elections this week.

In an interview for the “Pod Force One” podcast published Monday, Trump said he would move to “protect” the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO if Congressional investigators targeted him.

Trump also indicated that he was weighing pre-emptive pardons for his close aides and others around him should the Democrats pursue investigations, according to Axios. It is a notion that the president has floated before to keep his team from facing prosecution for actions during the first two years of his term.

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[–] 30 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

I think we need an amendment to rescind the pardon. Reduce it to a stay of execution only. Why is it even a thing? Did they really think giving this power to a sitting president would ONLY be used to right injustices? It's a friggin unlimited commit crimes and get out of jail free card.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 hours ago

    Yeah, pardons don't make sense unless you believe that executives can never do wrong.

    Which is a very strange belief to have as people in the process of rebelling against a king because he made decisions they didn't like.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 hours ago

    there should 100% be a check on pardons, like everything else. However, it wouldn't do much good in this situation seeing how congress and SC have already abdicated their duties.

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  • [–] -3 points 6 hours ago (1 child)

    The only reason the office of the President exists is because the American founders didn't have anyone among them with a reasonable chance of being supported as a king. Democracy was just a necessary compromise. If they could've gone full-on feudal, they would've.

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