Trump has defiantly pardoned people, irrespective of their crimes and conviction, which has significantly eroded the moral foundation of the legal system in his first year back to the White House.
What Trump has done in mere months, by capriciously issuing pardons, has undermined the idea that everyone is subject to the same laws.
As far as Trump is concerned, there are no legal or morale guidelines when he chooses whom to pardon.
One of the two most controversial pardons came in October 2025, when he pardoned Changpen Zhao for crypto-related money laundering violations. Zhao is the co-founder of a cryptocurrency exchange.
In seeking his pardon, Zhao's company made business deals with the Trump family crypto startup, from which Trump and his family made hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump traded America's rule of law and justice for self-enrichment in broad daylight.
The other extremely controversial pardon came in December 2025 when Trump freed the former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who had been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison by a U.S. court.
Trump's minister of propaganda, Karoline Leavitt, claimed Hernandez was a victim of prosecution by former President Joe Biden. The fact that Trump pardoned such a criminal when the U.S. Navy is busy sinking alleged drug boats off of the coast of Venezuela was the height of hypocrisy.
To be clear, Trump has no boundaries. His return to the White House has been devastating for the rule of law. He has no guardrails like in his first term, so Trump is acting on every spurious impulse he has with impunity.
Here's some more examples:
- In January Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace who was serving a life sentence on multiply charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics and money laundering.
- In March he pardoned Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes, Gregory Dwyer and Samuel Reed. The four, who founded the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, had pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement a compliant anti-money laundering program.
- In May, Trump pardoned reality stars Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted of several counts of fraud and tax evasion involving more than $30 million. Their daughter, Savannah, a vocal Trump supporter lobbied for their release and received the news of their pardon in a phone call from Trump himself.
Here's a scary thought; Trump is setting a precedent using pardons unrestrainedly which encourages future presidents to do the same. He's effectively turned pardons into political favors.
The fact of the matter is we haven't seen the end of Trump's barrage of arbitrary and destructive pardons, nor his domestic and foreign mischiefs, nor his violations of the Constitution.
Thus far it's estimated that Trump handed out over 1600 pardons this year, compared to a total of 144 pardons that he passed out during his first four years in office.
As it Stands, in Part 4, I discuss the war at home where ICE agents act like the gestapo while violating Americans and immigrants' rights daily.
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