What did Donald Trump do today?

He issued more pardons of the particular type he favors.

Trump has issued a spree of pardons and clemencies over the last few days. As is virtually always the case with Trump, they share a few common themes: either they are for crimes that Trump is known to have committed, or they are for people who have given Trump money, or they are for people who are or are willing to become his political allies, or they have some connection to the world of reality TV.

Todd and Julie Chrisley were convicted of fraud and tax evasion. The couple had starred for years on a reality TV show on the USA Network. Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, is a professional conservative "influencer." Thanks to a pardon Trump signed yesterday, both were released from prison today.

• Trump was convicted of felony fraud by a New York state jury in 2024. His businesses and his fake charity have both been found liable for tax law violations, and Trump himself engaged in a decades-long campaign of tax evasion with his siblings that netted him more than $400 million. Like the Chrisleys, Trump was a real estate broker who found his greatest professional success on a reality TV show.

John Rowland is the former Republican governor of Connecticut. He was convicted in 2004 of public corruption and tax fraud, and in a separate 2014 trial for violating campaign laws, lying to the FEC, and fraud. Trump pardoned him today.

• In addition to the tax and fraud crimes mentioned above, Trump has been accused of any number of campaign violations, though while he was in office his own hand-picked commissioners were able to block further action against him. His 2024 conviction turned in part on the fact that his attempt to cover up his affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels by paying her $130,000 for her silence was itself a campaign finance crime: by failing to disclose it as required by law, he was in effect paying for publicity off the books.

Michael Grimm is a former Republican member of Congress from New York. He, too, was convicted of tax fraud and was investigated by the FBI for campaign finance violations. After being forced to resign from Congress, he worked in conservative media as part of the pro-Trump media ecosystem.

• Grimm is the ninth Republican member of Congress to receive a pardon from Trump.

Jeremy Hutchinson, son of Arkansas' Republican former governor Asa Hutchinson, also committed tax fraud and accepted bribes and was convicted in 2023. The younger Hutchinson was a member of the Arkansas legislature took money in exchange for his votes to benefit a healthcare organization.  

• Trump hasn't been formally convicted of bribery, but he has created an astonishing number of ways for people or countries to overtly or covertly funnel money to his interests, as the following example demonstrates:

Paul Walczak is another tax cheat Trump pardoned this week, although not one with the public profile of the Chrisleys or national politicians. He stole money he collected for his employees' Social Security contributions to buy a yacht—meaning that he wasn't simply stealing from the taxpayers, but hurting his workers' retirement benefits. Trump's pardon means that Walczak will profit from his crime, because he will no longer be obliged to pay the taxpayers back the $4.4 million he stole.

• Walczak's profits will be slightly reduced by the fact that his pardon came only after his mother paid $1 million to a Trump political fundraiser several weeks ago, which bought her access to Trump to plead her case.

Earl Lamont Smith is a former Army reservist who was convicted of stealing government property. Trump pardoned him today.

• The computers Smith used his Army position to steal were new and did not contain sensitive information, unlike the dozens of boxes of sensitive and classified documents Trump stole upon leaving the White House and refused to return until they were seized by the FBI.

Scott Jenkins is a "wonderful person" who was "dragged through hell" and "left for dead" by "radical Left monsters"—according to Trump's pardon statement for the former Culpeper County, VA sheriff, who was one of Trump's vocal supporters in the swing state.

• Another way of looking at it is that Jenkins took money in exchange for sharing the powers of his elected office with completely unqualified people to help them escape the consequences of their own lawbreaking—much like Trump has with his biggest patron Elon Musk.
  
  

Why does this matter?

• "It's not illegal if it helps the Leader" is how dictatorships work.
  

• Cheating on taxes is a real crime that hurts real Americans, even if the president thinks "smart" people don't pay them.
  

• Selling off the powers of an elected office to the highest bidder is a serious crime and it hurts Americans and their faith in government, even if nobody who bought access president's time will say so to his face.