Tomorrow—Monday—is the day some of us thought we would never see but many of us hoped for: Donald Trump’s inauguration to a second term as president of the United States.
As a candidate, the president-elect (tomorrow I can stop typing that!) promised he would hit the ground running and start realizing his vision on Day One. As we covered, he’s going to be armed with over 100 executive orders—I’m seeing reports Sunday that the number may now have ballooned to as high as 200—and he’ll be ready to start signing some of them not too long after he’s taken the oath of office.
Batten down the hatches: Trump: I’m Coming, and I’ve Got 100 Executive Orders Ready
But that’s not all he plans to do on his first day—reports indicate that he will issue a “slate” of pardons for an unknown number of participants in the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
BREAKING: President Trump will be signing a massive “slate” of J6 pardons immediately after being sworn in tomorrow. The pardons have already been drafted.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 19, 2025
We’ll just have to wait and see how many pardons he ends up issuing:
President-elect Donald Trump and his team have drafted a slate of pardons for people convicted for their role in the January 6 Capitol attack to be issued on Day 1, shortly after Trump is sworn in as president, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN.
Trump has repeatedly said he planned to swiftly pardon people who were convicted for their role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. During a December interview with Time Magazine, Trump said: “I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes.”
The extent of the initial pardons is still unclear; however, one of the sources described them as enough to be seen as “delivering on his long-held promise.” About 1,270 people have been convicted of January 6-related crimes, and the vast majority of those defendants pleaded guilty. Only a couple hundred are currently behind bars.
X owner and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-head Elon Musk wrote that some prisoners need to be released immediately—no red tape here, please:
And they should be released immediately upon signing of the pardons! No lengthy paperwork delays are acceptable.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2025
There has been much discussion over whether the soon-to-be-president would pardon participants who engaged in violence. Many pundits are arguing that he should release all the J6 prisoners, but at least two prominent GOP voices say those who attacked police should not get a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Several Republican allies of Trump have said they expect him to approach the pardons on a case-by-case basis, but two key GOP lawmakers on Sunday refused to rule out Trump potentially issuing pardons for some of the roughly 174 defendants charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against police officers.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday on “Meet the Press” that Trump and [Vice President-elect JD] Vance agree “peaceful protesters should be pardoned, but violent criminals should not.”
That being said, there are a whole bunch of non-violent people who were prosecuted and bullied into pleading guilty by Joe Biden and Merrick Garland’s hyper-politicized, vindictive Department of Justice. The time has arrived for Trump to make it right.
Whatever his decision, it looks like Monday is going to be one heck of a day. Be ready to duck in case of exploding liberal heads.
[Editor’s Note: This article was edited for clarity after publication.]
