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.

  • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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.

    • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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      24 hours ago

      the American founders didn’t have anyone among them with a reasonable chance of being supported as a king.

      As in the Glorious Revolution in England, some of the founders put out feelers looking for some underemployed German or Dutch prince who might want the job of King. But the debate ran out of the founders’ control, thanks to radicals like Thomas Paine, who wrote pamphlets arguing that we didn’t need to have a king at all.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Lol what nonsense shit is this. The federalist papers have a mess of talks about how they’re worried that what they have created would be used like trump is using it now.

      And even Washington was vehemently against it, and the reason the POTUS has a two term limit is because of Washington.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburgh_letter

      Where did you even come up with this…

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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        23 hours ago

        the reason the POTUS has a two term limit is because of Washington

        The two-terrm limit was not law until the 22nd Amendment was ratified in (I think) 1951, as a Republican-led reaction to FDR’s having been elected four times.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          While this is correct, all previous presidents abided by the whole, two term thing as Washington did. It should have been a law from day one but nothing is perfect.