- President Donald Trump has said he’d be prepared to preemptively pardon anyone who has worked for him if the Democrats take Congress in the midterms
- “I would not even think about it. I’d do it,” he told journalist Miranda Devine on her Pod Force One podcast, citing the approximately 1,500 defendants from the Jan. 6 riots he pardoned at the start of his second term
- Some Democratic lawmakers have discussed launching investigations into people close to Trump and his administration if the party was to regain congressional control
President Donald Trump has said he’s prepared to use preemptive pardons to protect his staff and allies if the Democrats take Congress in the 2026 midterms.
“I would if I needed to. Sure,” Trump, 80, told the New York Post‘s Miranda Devine on the Monday, Nov. 2 episode of her Pod Force One podcast ahead of Election Day.
Devine, 65, told Trump, “[Members of the Democratic party] want to arrest Elon Musk, they want to seize his factories, nationalize SpaceX…”
“It’s talk, but if it is talk we’ll have to protect them,” Trump replied.
“Big Balls [Edward Coristine], they want to arrest him, anyone around you who enabled you,” Devine continued, referring to a 20-year-old programmer who worked in Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) before resigning in June 2025.
“Well I don’t know about me, but I can tell you if they do we’ll have to protect those people,” Trump said, to which Devine asked, “How do you do that? Can you preemptively pardon them?”
“That’s what Biden did, he gave everybody a pardon,” Trump responded.
Devine then asked Trump if he would do that and if he was referring to everyone who worked for him. The president replied, “I would if needed to … I would not even think about it. I’d do it.”
“I did it for J6,” Trump added, referring to the approximately 1,500 defendants from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots he pardoned on the first day of his second term, four years later.
Trump continued to use former President Joe Biden, who issued a number of preemptive pardons as his time in the White House came to an end, as an example.
Those pardoned by Biden, 83, included former White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, members and staff of the House Jan. 6 select committee and several members of his own family.
“He gave everybody a pardon,” Trump said, describing the Jan. 6 panel as the “unselect committee” and a “corrupt committee.”
The president’s comments came amid discussions among Democrats about potential investigations that could take place if their party was to regain control of Congress after the midterm elections.
Last month, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the party could use subpoena power to investigate the president’s family if it was to win control of the House.
Speaking to CNN, he said potential investigations could look at what he described as “pay-to-play pardons” and alleged fraud.
A week later, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a fellow Democrat and longtime Trump critic, said during an event at the University of Chicago that a Democratic majority could pursue “signature cases” against people who “enabled” the president.
“I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’ … I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want,” Slotkin, 50, said, per CNN. “And so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent.”
“They’re bad people,” Trump told Devine. “They’re just very evil people.”
Days after Slotkin’s remarks, Trump told reporters she was a “low-life who is ruining her state,” per the Detroit Free Press.
The 50-year-old previously voted to impeach Trump in his first and second impeachments, and last year joined five colleagues to film a video in which they urged members of the military and the intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in response at the time. Following his comments, she said she had received threats and had been placed under 24/7 security by Capitol Police.