The Promise Trump Did Keep: Pardons for His Most Violent Followers

Trump’s Original Sin: January 6th.

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Today is January 6th—the anniversary of one of the most horrifying and destabilizing attacks on our democracy. And while a lot of people are going to spend today replaying the horrific images and reliving the trauma of that insurrection Donald Trump incited, I want to focus on something that still doesn’t get enough attention: the pardons Trump handed out at the beginning of his second term to the very people who attacked the Capitol.

I believe those pardons were the original sin of his second term. They represent everything that’s broken and insidious about Donald Trump’s presidency.

They revealed the governing philosophy of this administration: loyalty and profit above all, no accountability for Trump and his allies, and the American people pay the price.

Here’s a man who promised he was going to fix grocery prices, housing prices, and promised no new wars—a golden age of America. He told women struggling with infertility that IVF would be free. He told American farmers and ranchers that he was going to fight for them—only to sell them out to Big Ag and foreign governments. He pledged to release the Epstein files! He made a million promises, and he’s broken almost all of them.

But the one promise he actually did keep? The one he made to his most loyal, violent supporters: to pardon the January 6th rioters.

And those pardons didn’t just excuse past crimes—they set a precedent. They sent a message that violence in service of Trump would not only be tolerated but rewarded. You don’t think that sent a message to ICE agents terrorizing immigrant communities across the country?

And look what followed. A lot of those same people have already been rearrested—on gun charges, stalking members of Congress, child exploitation. Are they going to get pardoned again? Who knows… I wouldn’t be shocked.

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Just like he kept his promise to Big Oil this week—who were assured a massive payday if they supported him in 2024. And now he’s launched the assault on Venezuela and installed a regime that would play ball. All so Big Oil could cash in.

And while that corruption plays out in plain sight, let me ask you this directly: how are you actually doing?

Ask the average American—they’ll tell you they’re struggling. Sixty percent of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck. And that number is growing rapidly. Many just saw their health care premiums double or triple because Congress failed to act. How many people are financing their groceries on Klarna!?

But it’s more than that. People are giving up. They don’t believe they’ll ever own a home, pay off their student loans, start a family, or retire with dignity—let alone take a vacation or live a life that includes joy and usefulness. People are exhausted. Disillusioned. Praying to win the lottery or hit it big with their cousin’s crypto scam.

And that’s not an accident. While Trump protects his people and cashes in, the rest of the country is left with higher costs, fewer protections, and no accountability.

Let’s not kid ourselves—Washington’s been broken for a long time. Corruption runs deep on both sides of the aisle. And Democrats have spent too long pretending not to see it in our own house. That has to stop. We have to root it out.

But Trump has made the whole game worse—and more brazen. He’s not subtle. He’s loud about it. So loud that some Americans have actually started to admire it—like, “Well, at least he’s honest about being corrupt.” That’s where we are.

Look at Venezuela again. For months they told us it was about fighting drug trafficking. Then the second Maduro was ousted—who, by the way, is a gigantic piece of shit and deserves no sympathy—Trump’s out there bragging about all the oil we’re going to get.

And let’s be real: a lot of oil companies don’t even want that oil—it’s a different type that requires a whole separate process.

This was never about drugs or democracy. It was about corruption. It was about self-enrichment. Plain and simple.

It’s the same deal Trump offered on January 6th: do my bidding, and I’ll protect you—with pardons, with power, with profit.

And coming back to January 6th—that day, and those pardons, are the clearest, ugliest snapshot of everything Trump’s Washington has become. He’s weaponized the pardon power more than any president before him. He’s profited off the presidency more than any president before him. And he’s hurt the American people.

I said this in my rant yesterday: I feel like I’m stuck in a loop. I spent my high school and college years protesting a Republican president who wrecked the economy and dragged us into dumb, oil-fueled wars. And now it’s happening all over again.

But we can break the cycle. And we must.

This year’s midterm elections are a real chance to flip the House and flip the Senate. We’re running amazing candidates. But we can’t just focus on cleaning up the mess. Democrats are always cast as the adults in the room—the janitors who come in to mop up after Republicans torch the place—while corrupt billionaires keep getting what they want, and working people get screwed.

We need a Democratic Party that is the opposite, in every way, of what Trump represents. One that serves the public instead of protecting the powerful.

One that’s ready to go on offense. One that’s ready to put real money in people’s pockets, fix our democracy, and rip the rot out of Washington. One that is unrelenting in rooting out its own decay and corruption. A party that’s urgent, fearless, and dead serious about delivering justice—for the people, and against the corrupt.

I believe a reckoning is coming. And it’s going to look like tens of millions of Americans showing up and voting for Democrats up and down the ballot. We’re going to get at least one hand back on the wheel. We’re going to hold these people accountable.

And God damn it, if we build the kind of Democratic Party that fights like hell to deliver—not just to manage chaos—we will get justice. From this administration, and for the American people.