Quote · The Bulwark Podcast
Maggie Haberman: A Gross and Messy White House
Where this was said
Presidential Immunity and the Pardon Radius
At 8:07 · chapter starts 6:50
The conversation moves to one of the book's most vivid early scenes: Trump wanted to announce sweeping J6 pardons in his inaugural address. An aide warned that Democrats would walk out on camera, and Trump relented — his last concession to decorum. Hours later he pardoned roughly 1,500 people anyway, including those who attacked police officers. The immunity discussion then expands to the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling, which Trump has internalized as a simple, all-encompassing phrase: 'I'm immune.' Haberman reveals that Trump has repeatedly told associates he will issue preemptive pardons to anyone who has come within 200 to 250 feet of the Oval Office — what she calls a 'pardon radius.' Several people who have spoken to Haberman and Swan are personally banking on receiving one. It creates, she notes, 'a certain mindset.'
Trump issued roughly 1,500 grants of clemency on Inauguration Day, including pardons for Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police officers.
Trump has told people repeatedly he will issue preemptive pardons to anyone who has come within 200-250 feet of the Oval Office. Multiple aides are personally counting on their own pardon. It's not just bravado — it's a governing philosophy.
Trump has repeatedly told people he will issue preemptive pardons to anyone who has come within 200-250 feet of the Oval Office.
Musk rejected his cramped West Wing office and set up shop in the grand Secretary of War suites in the EEOB, playing video games late into the night and calling Trump to propose new cuts. He was essentially a co-president — Trump's own staff often found out about Musk's decisions after the fact.
