Trump says he plans 'tremendous numbers' of pardons in 2nd half of term
The president also defended his pardons of Jan. 6 rioters.
President Donald Trump said he expects to issue "tremendous numbers" of pardons before he leaves office, adding that while he has the power to pardon himself, he doesn't expect to do so.
Asked during a "60 Minutes" interview that aired on Sunday, Trump added that pardoning himself is "not unreasonable."
"But more importantly, I don’t want to have good people that are serving this country and doing a great job spending the rest of their life like I had to do for four years defending myself by radical left lunatics, by people that were very nasty and mean," Trump told CBS News' Ross Douthat as part of a wide-ranging interview.
He added that he intends "to issue tremendous numbers of pardons," possibly including pardons for those who "got within a thousand miles of the Oval Office" during his term.
Trump's predecessor, President Joe Biden, issued several pardons in 2025 in the final days of his presidency. Those preemptive pardons included close family members, although they did not include the president himself.
"My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me -- the worst kind of partisan politics," Biden wrote in a statement at the time. "Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end."
Biden also preemptively pardoned several senior members of his administration, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and lawmakers who served on the House Jan. 6 Committee.
Trump suggested early during his second term that Biden should have also pardoned himself.
"This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon," Trump said at the time, without giving specifics on what crimes his predecessor could have committed.
In 2024, the Supreme Court decision in Trump vs. US granted Trump sweeping immunity from prosecution. The decision would apply to all U.S. presidents, including Biden.
As Trump again entered office he issued a sweeping series of pardons for defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, commuting the sentences of 14 individuals and offering a “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
About 1,500 people were to be pardoned, he said at the time.
The president in the "60 Minutes" interview that aired on Sunday defended his pardons for the rioters, some of whom attacked law enforcement.
"I think it's very unfair. I pardoned the J-6s. I don't think any group’s been treated more unfairly than them, and and to this day when they see me, they cry," Trump said.
Asked if he meant that even about the ones who attacked police, he said: "There was some that got rough, but you know, they were rough to them, too."