The President’s Pardon Power Was Never a Good Idea

It’s a built-in corruption machine… and it’s one of the easiest ways to turn a republic into a protection racket

The President’s Pardon Power Was Never a Good Idea

It’s a built-in corruption machine… and it’s one of the easiest ways to turn a republic into a protection racket.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #739: Sunday, January 18th, 2026.

Let me give you the cleanest way to dive into this.

Because this week handed us the perfect “case study” in why the pardon power was never a cute little mercy valve.

It was always a loaded weapon.

Here’s the headline that should make any adult sit up straight:

Trump just issued a second pardon to the same person…for a different crime.

Not a clarification.

Not a paperwork fix.

A second, separate wipe-the-slate clean.

The guy’s name is Daniel Edwin Wilson.

Wilson was swept up in Trump’s mass January 6 clemency…and then later received another pardon for a separate federal firearms conviction that kept him in prison…even after the first wave.

Read that again, slowly…because this is the whole disease in one sentence:

The President didn’t just “show mercy.” He issued “insurance.” Twice.

And once the public sees that a president will do that….issue one pardon…then come back later and issue another one when a different legal problem pops up…what do you think happens inside the minds of everyone in his orbit?

I’ll tell you exactly what happens:

They stop acting like citizens under law… and start acting like operators under protection.

They start believing there’s a safety net.

A rescue rope.

A get-out-of-jail card that doesn’t just exist in theory…it exists in practice.

And…that belief is where the rot begins.

Because you don’t need ten thousand pardons to corrupt a system.

You just need to make it credible….that loyalty gets rewarded and risk gets erased.

That’s how you turn the justice system into a benefits program for the faithful.

That’s how you turn “law enforcement” into “enforcement for thee.”

That’s how you build a two-tier country…without ever passing a single new law.

This is why the pardon power…is so seductive to authoritarian-minded leadership.

It’s fast.

It’s unilateral.

It bypasses normal checks.

And…it creates something every strongman needs to survive:

A loyalty engine.

Now, defenders will say: “Pardons are constitutional.”

Yes. That’s the problem.

Because constitutional doesn’t mean wise.

Constitutional doesn’t mean immune to abuse.

Constitutional doesn’t mean…it won’t get used exactly the way any power in human hands eventually gets used:

To protect friends.

To reward allies.

To erase consequences.

To keep people quiet.

To keep networks intact.

And…if you think that sounds dramatic, good…because this is the mechanism…hiding in plain sight….that turns democratic systems into protection rackets.

So let me tie this directly to the bigger point you already feel in your bones…about the crisis…about state power…about intimidation…about how a country gets rewired without tanks rolling down Main Street:

The pardon isn’t just a tool of mercy. It’s a tool of control.

And once you see it that way…you realize something that should make your skin crawl:

The presidential pardon power was never a good idea. Not then. Not now. Not ever.

Now…let me show you why.

State power isn’t most dangerous when it’s loud.

It’s most dangerous when it becomes friction… fear… silence… and a quiet system that makes people comply.

That’s what a pardon does in the wrong hands.

It doesn’t just “show mercy.”
It becomes a control lever. A reward system. A cover-up tool. A loyalty contract.

And the moment you understand that…you also understand the ugly truth:

The presidential pardon power was never “a noble feature.”

It was an open invitation for human nature to do what human nature does.

Which is trade power for loyalty…and then call it justice.

The Fairy Tale Version vs. The Real-World Version

The fairy tale version goes like this:

“We need the pardon so a president can correct injustices…show mercy…calm a rebellion… heal the nation.”

Nice.

Now the real-world version:

A president with pardon power…has the ability to create a two-tier justice system…one for ordinary people…and….one for people who can offer value.

Value like:

• Silence

• Loyalty

• Covering tracks

• Taking the fall

• Refusing to testify

• Protecting the leader

• Doing “dirty work” that the leader benefits from but doesn’t want traced back

That’s not theory.

That’s the business model of every political machine that ever existed.

If you can erase crimes with a signature…you’ve built a private insurance policy for a criminal network.

And if you think, “Well, that’s only if the president is corrupt…”

Yes.

Exactly.

That’s the point.

The Constitution is supposed to protect you from the reality that leaders are not angels.

A safety mechanism that only works if the person holding…it is moral is not a safety mechanism. It’s a gamble.

The Pardon Power Is a Loyalty Engine

A pardon is not just “forgiveness.”

A pardon is currency.

And once it becomes currency…it starts buying things.

Here’s what it buys…in the real world:

1) It buys silence

If you’re under investigation, and you believe the president can make your criminal exposure disappear…

You have a strong incentive to keep your mouth shut.

Not because you love him.

Because you love your freedom.

2) It buys refusal to cooperate

Witnesses can suddenly “forget” things.

Defendants can take charges and absorb consequences.

People can stall proceedings until the end of a term.

Why?

Because the pardon turns “legal risk” into “negotiation leverage.”

3) It buys obedience

A leader doesn’t even have to promise a pardon explicitly.

They just have to let it be understood.

That’s how power works in a real machine:

• You do the favor

• You prove loyalty

• You get protection later

The pardon makes that possible.

And…a system like that doesn’t need many pardons to work.

It needs the belief…that a pardon is available for the loyal.

That belief changes behavior…across an entire organization.

The Pardon Power Turns Criminality Into “Strategy”

Now let’s connect this to my earlier theme…yesterday: the quiet architecture of control.

When people believe enforcement is political… they start self-censoring.

When people believe rule of law is optional… they stop acting like citizens and start acting like subjects.

The pardon power does something worse:

It can make criminal behavior a rational career move.

“Do the risky thing now, get cleaned later.”

That is catastrophic for a country.

Because it shifts the incentives inside government from:

• “follow the law”
  to:

• “follow the boss”

And once the incentive is loyalty over legality…your institutions decay from the inside out.

Not dramatically.

Quietly.

One person…at…a…time.

“But It’s Meant for Mercy!”

Sure. Fine. Mercy is good.

But…we’re not talking about whether mercy is good.

We’re talking about whether one person should have unilateral power…to grant mercy without meaningful oversight…without transparency…without constraint… and without consequences.

Because “mercy” is not what corrupt power calls it.

Corrupt power calls it:

• “Looking out for my people”

• “Righting wrongs”

• “Fixing a witch hunt”

• “Protecting patriots”

• “Punishing enemies”

Same tool.

Different story.

And in politics….the story is the weapon.

The Pardon Power Is the Perfect Cover-Up Tool

Here’s the part most people don’t want to say out loud:

A pardon can function like a shredder.

It can:

• Stop a prosecution

• Reduce incentives for cooperation

• Remove legal pressure that would otherwise force testimony

• Let a network survive intact

• Prevent information from coming out in court

And courts…are where facts…get nailed down under oath.

So…when you remove the legal pressure…you often remove the truth.

That means the pardon is not just about mercy.

It can be about controlling what becomes public.

It can be about protecting the leader from accountability.

And…if you give a leader the power…to block accountability for the people who protected him…

You’ve built a pipeline from criminal conduct….to political impunity.

Congratulations. You’ve invented the modern strongman playbook.

The Most Dangerous Feature: Timing

The pardon power becomes even more toxic because of timing.

Think about how a smart operator would use it.

Not emotionally. Strategically.

End-of-term pardons

You wait until the last days of a term, when:

• Political consequences are minimal

• Investigations can’t keep pace

• Accountability is slow

• The public is distracted

• The press cycle is chaotic

That’s not an accident. That’s how incentives line up.

If you were designing a corruption mechanism…you would literally design it to be used when accountability is weakest.

And that’s exactly….what the pardon structure allows.

The Pardon Power Creates “Protected Classes”

Now connect this to the core social fracture you’ve been writing about:

People can tolerate hardship.

What they can’t tolerate is humiliation.

When citizens watch a system where:

• Powerful insiders get protection

• Loyalists get rescued

• Ordinary people get hammered

• Justice looks selective

…it doesn’t just make them angry.

It makes them cynical.

Cynicism is the solvent that dissolves democracy.

Because once people believe the system is rigged…they stop showing up.

Or worse:

They start believing the only way to survive…is to join a tribe with protection.

That is how civil society rots.

Not because everyone becomes evil.

Because everyone becomes defensive.

And…the pardon power accelerates that rot by making “protection” a public…visible thing.

A Republic Cannot Survive on “Trust Me, Bro”

Let’s get blunt.

The Founders wrote a lot of language that basically boils down to:

“We hope leaders will be virtuous.”

Cute.

But hope…is damn sure not a plan.

A constitutional design that says, “We give the president a king-like power because we trust him to use it kindly,” is not a serious design. It. Is. Not.

It’s a design that assumes:

• Character will reliably restrain ambition

• Power won’t corrupt

• Fear won’t drive irrational decisions

• Loyalty networks won’t form

• Cover-ups won’t happen

That assumption is insane.

Because the entire history of politics….says the opposite.

The Best Argument Against Pardon Power Is Simple

Here it is:

Any power that can prevent accountability will eventually be used to prevent accountability.

I understand psychology and human behavior the way most people understand a light switch; flip it, and you can predict what happens next.

Making that point about preventing accountability has nothing to do with politics or the Constitution. It’s about human behavior under pressure. Pure and simple.

That’s not pessimism.

That’s just how incentives work.

If you give someone a lever that can erase consequences for allies…

That lever becomes the most valuable asset in the entire political ecosystem.

People will angle for it.

People will trade for it.

People will obey to earn it.

And…the leader will use it to build a moat around himself.

That’s not because “a given leader is uniquely bad.”

It’s because the structure invites it.

“Okay Smart Guy, Then What Should Replace It?”

Now we get to the part that matters.

Because I’m not interested in complaining. I’m interested in systems.

If you want mercy in a justice system (and you do)…then you build mercy that doesn’t double as a corruption engine.

Here are reforms that would preserve mercy while removing the worst incentives:

1) Require a transparent, documented process

No secret pardons.
No last-minute surprises without explanation.

Every pardon should include:

• Written rationale

• Factual basis

• Who recommended it

• Who reviewed it

• Whether the recipient was connected to the president personally or politically

Sunlight doesn’t stop all corruption…but…it raises the cost.

2) Bar pardons for cases involving the president’s personal interests

If the pardon touches:

• The president’s campaign

• The president’s family

• The president’s business

• The president’s staff inner circle

• Investigations that could implicate the president

…then the president should be disqualified from issuing it.

Period.

Because you cannot allow someone to erase consequences in matters that could protect them personally.

That’s not “mercy.” That’s self-dealing.

3) Move pardons to a board with multi-branch checks

You want mercy?

Fine.

Build a clemency board that includes:

• Judiciary representation

• Bipartisan congressional representation

• Executive representation

And make it supermajority.

Mercy is still possible.

But…protection-racket behavior becomes much harder.

4) Limit pardons to narrow categories

Mass commutations for outdated sentencing regimes?
Sure.

Individual mercy for demonstrable miscarriages of justice?
Sure.

But blanket power to wipe away federal criminal exposure for political allies?

No.

5) End the “end-of-term pardon dump”

Require a waiting period and review.
If you want to pardon someone…do it while you still have to live with the consequences.

If you’re proud of it…you won’t mind scrutiny.

If you’re not proud of it…we just learned something.

The Meta Point: Mercy Must Never Become a Weapon

Now let’s bring it back to your article’s deeper theme.

This is about what happens when a nation’s architecture is quietly rewired.

A pardon, in its modern political use…is not just about “forgiveness.”

It becomes:

• A message to enemies

• A reward to loyalists

• A warning to witnesses

• A promise to operatives

• A pressure valve for corruption

And once that happens…you don’t have rule of law.

You have rule of the boss.

And that’s not a republic.

That’s a machine.

Final Reality Check

If you want to know whether pardon power was a good idea, ask one brutal question:

Would you give this power to your worst political enemy?

Not your favorite president.

Not the “good guy.”

Your worst-case scenario.

A person you believe is vindictive…self-serving…and surrounded by opportunists.

Would you want that person to have unilateral authority to:

• Erase crimes

• Reward loyalty

• Block accountability

• Protect networks

If the answer is no…

Then it was never a good idea.

Because constitutional design is not supposed to work only when “good people” are in charge.

It’s supposed to work…when bad people try to break it.

That’s the entire point of guardrails.

And the pardon power is a missing guardrail that turns a presidency…into a potential protection racket.

You don’t “fix” that with better vibes.

You fix it…with structure.

#HoldFast

Back soon,

-Jack
Jack Hopkins