There are exceptions to Donald Trump’s aversion to anything or anyone Chicago- or Illinois-related.
Our notorious former Elvis-loving governor, Rod Blagojevich, charmed the Republican president ever since he appeared as a contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality series in 2010.
“Governor, I have great respect for you,” Trump told Blagojevich back then. “I have great respect for your tenacity, for the fact that you just don’t give up.”
Trump, who felt “badly” for “firing” Blagojevich on the show, has proven through his actions that he hasn’t given up on Blagojevich.
He commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence at the end of his first term in the Oval Office. Now among Trump’s rash, controversial orders — some already halted by federal judges — at the start of his second term is his pardoning of Blagojevich for trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after Obama was elected president in 2008 and extorting big campaign donations from a hospital and racetrack owner.
Trump called Blagojevich a “very fine person” as he signed the pardon Monday. Plenty of others would beg to differ.
To add insult to the injury, Trump is also reportedly considering the Democrat-turned-“Trumpocrat” Blagojevich as the U.S. ambassador to Serbia.
Trump similarly rewarded Charles Kushner, his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father, by pardoning the elder Kushner’s federal conviction in 2020 and naming him as his pick for ambassador to France.
Can Trump find no one without a criminal record to serve as representatives of the U.S. abroad? Instead, he sees nothing wrong with sending convicted felons to serve as ambassadors to important allies (which shouldn’t be surprising, given his own felony conviction).
Crime apparently pays in Trump’s orbit. It also comes at very little cost to Trump’s less-connected followers, including the Jan 6 rioters he pardoned last month.
The presidential pardon is ideally designed to protect the unjustly accused, not the president’s family members, buddies or supporters who were convicted in wrongdoing.
Americans, including Democrats, who condemned Joe Biden for pardoning his son Hunter for gun and tax charges weren’t off-base. The former president may have been trying to protect his adult child from political retribution, but in doing so he set a bad precedent.
Trump was flagrant with his dangerous precedents in 2020 and he’s coming down harder this time around. There are many imprisoned people deserving of pardons. Blagojevich wasn’t one of them.
Some people considered Blagojevich’s original prison sentence to be too lengthy. But absolving him of political corruption is an insult to Illinoisans who have endured more than their share of crooked elected leaders.
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