Anyone who has worked in President Donald Trump’s administration could be handed a pardon before a prosecutor ever files a charge.
Trump said he would use preemptive pardons to shield his staff and allies if Democrats win control of Congress and pursue prosecutions, speaking with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine in a "Pod Force One" episode released Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 — the day before the midterm elections. Asked whether he would grant them, the president said, “I would if I needed to. Sure.”
Devine pressed him on whether that would cover everyone who had worked for him.
“I’d do it. I did it for J6,” Trump said.
On his first day back in office in 2025, he pardoned roughly 1,500 defendants charged over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He reached for a Democratic precedent, too, pointing to Joe Biden’s final hours in the Oval Office, when Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, the members and staff of the House Jan. 6 committee, and several relatives, including his son Hunter. “That’s what Biden did. He gave everybody a pardon,” Trump said. He called the panel “a corrupt committee.”
The Deterrence Message Slotkin Wants
The threats Trump was asked about are not hypothetical. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told an audience at a University of Chicago event in October 2026 that a Democratic majority should build signature cases against the people who enabled the president, not just the president himself — and that the point is to make college graduates think twice about taking a job in his administration.
“I want that deterrence message,” Slotkin said.
In a post on X, Slotkin wrote that anyone who helped misuse taxpayer dollars to benefit the president or his family, or broke the law carrying out his guidance, should be held accountable — and noted that the Supreme Court granted the president immunity, not the people who act at his behest.
Arresting the World’s Richest Man
Devine also raised the proposals circulating on the left to investigate Elon Musk, seize assets or nationalize pieces of his business empire, including the suggestion that the world’s richest man be arrested.
“It won’t happen. It’s talk. But if it is talk, we’ll have to protect them,” Trump said.
Some have also floated going after staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency, among them Edward Coristine, the aide known as “Big Balls.” Asked whether he himself would end up in Democratic crosshairs, Trump answered, “Well, I don’t know about me.”
What a Pardon Cannot Touch
Clemency has limits that no president can write around. A presidential pardon wipes out federal criminal exposure only; it is no defense against a state prosecution, a civil lawsuit or impeachment.
Congressional investigators would still have their own tools. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has said a Democratic House could use its subpoena power to examine “pay-to-play pardons.”
Trump named no one he intends to pardon. He announced no completed pardons and did not say which offenses a blanket grant would cover.
He Calls the Polls Rigged
Surveys show Democrats within reach of flipping both the House and the Senate. Trump called those polls “rigged” and pointed instead to the size of his rally crowds as the better indicator, arguing Republicans will outrun expectations. He drew supporters to the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center in Rock Hill, S.C., on Oct. 29.
Both parties are now preparing for the arithmetic of a possible split government after the Nov. 3 vote, with Trump floating vetoes alongside the pardon talk. On Monday, he delivered a final midterm message at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
As for whether any of it will be necessary, the president set his own deadline: “We’ll know on Tuesday night.”