Trump says he would grant preemptive pardons to his staff if Democrats win Congress

As of 7:58 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

President Donald Trump said he would be willing to grant preemptive pardons to everyone who has worked for him if Democrats win control of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections and follow through on threats to prosecute them, according to a New York Post interview published Monday.

"I would if I needed to, sure ... I would not even think about it. I'd do it. I did it for J6," Trump told Miranda Devine, a New York Post columnist and host of the paper's "Pod Force One" podcast, in the full episode released Monday morning.

Asked whether that would apply to everyone who had worked for him, Trump reaffirmed it, according to a separate Post news story by Thomas English. Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 defendants from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol on his first day back in office in 2025, the Post noted.

'We'll just have to protect those people'

Trump pointed to former President Joe Biden, who in his final hours in office pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, members and staff of the House Jan. 6 committee and several of his own relatives, including his son Hunter. "That's what Biden did. He gave everybody a pardon," Trump said, according to the Post. He called the Jan. 6 panel "a corrupt committee."

Devine wrote in her column, which the Post labels opinion and an exclusive, that Democrats have threatened to come after Trump, his family, his Cabinet, Elon Musk and others around him with subpoenas and prosecutions. "If they do, we'll just have to protect those people," Trump said.

When Devine raised the idea of arresting Musk, Trump said, "It won't happen. It's talk," according to the Post. "But if it is talk, we'll have to protect them."

Asked whether he himself was a Democratic target, Trump said, "Well, I don't know about me," the Post reported.

The Post noted that pardons cover only federal crimes and offer no protection from state prosecutions, civil suits or impeachment.

What Democrats have said

The Post cited recent comments by Democrats. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said at a University of Chicago event last month that a Democratic majority should prosecute "signature cases" against "the people who enable" Trump, the paper reported. "I want that deterrence message sent," Slotkin said, according to the Post. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who the Post said is likely to chair the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats win the House, has promised to investigate what he calls the administration's "systemic corruption."

No Democratic response to Trump's pardon remarks was included in the Post's reports.

'Mr. Veto'

The full episode also includes a warning, first reported by the Post on Sunday, that Trump would block legislation from a Democratic Congress. "I think we're going to do great. But if we didn't win, I veto everything. I'll be vetoing, vetoing," he said. "I guess I'll become Mr. Veto ... And then at some point, we'll probably make deals."

According to the Post, Trump has vetoed two bills in his second term and vetoed 10 in his first.

Polls and cheating allegations

Polls show Democrats favored to win the House, the Post reported. Devine wrote that polls hand both chambers to Democrats. Trump called the polls "rigged" and said, "I don't know anybody that's ever been polled." He said he based his optimism on the size of his rally crowds.

Trump also said, without offering evidence in the reported excerpts, that Democrats' policies are so unpopular that "the only way you can get elected is to cheat." He warned that if Democrats won Congress this year and the presidency in 2028, "our country is finished."

Trump said that Ohio Senate candidate Jon Husted jumped 12 points in the polls after Trump praised him at a rally. Devine wrote that official figures don't show that.

On running again

Trump, 80, said he would "love to run again if I had the chance, but the language is very exacting," referring to the 22nd Amendment's two-term limit, according to the Post. "I'd have loved to run, but it's fine," he said.