Trump Kicks Off Presidency With Ominous Message About January 6
There is no higher premium in Donald Trump’s second administration than loyalty.
The president-elect is reportedly planning to make good on his promise to save some of his most ferocious supporters, with a slew of pardons on the immediate horizon for some January 6 offenders.
Speaking at an inauguration eve rally in Washington, Trump claimed that the forthcoming pardons would make his supporters “very happy,” once again referring to the convictees—who tore through the U.S. Capitol complex in a deadly riot, halting Congress’s certification of votes in delirious support of his failed presidential bid—as “hostages.”
“And tomorrow, everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J-6 hostages,” Trump told the crowd Sunday. “Very happy. I think you will be very, very happy.”
Trump: Tomorrow, everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages. Very happy. I think you will be very, very happy. pic.twitter.com/e2GR8IhEZM
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 19, 2025
CNN reported that sources familiar with Trump’s plants have claimed that a flurry of pardons are expected as part of a mountain of executive orders that Trump will sign on his first day back in office. The extent of the pardons is unclear, though Trump’s nonviolent supporters would be an easy target for the executive decision.
What’s less obvious is what Trump will do for some 174 January 6 defendants who were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against Capitol police.
Approximately 1,270 January 6 defendants have been convicted in the years since they stormed the Capitol, though only a couple hundred are actually serving prison time for their involvement.
If Trump does decide to legally forgive those members of his base, he’d be at odds with Vice President-elect JD Vance, who told Fox News last week that Trump’s more violent supporters didn’t deserve pardons.
“I think it’s very simple, look if you protested peacefully on January 6, and you had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance told host Shannon Bream. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there’s a little bit of a gray area there.”
In Trump’s 2024 “Person of the Year” interview with Time, the incoming president reissued his intentions to focus on his suffering supporters: “I’ll be looking at J6 early on,” Trump told the magazine. “Maybe the first nine minutes.”