Anyone who has ever worked in the Trump administration now has the president’s word that a pardon is available if the new Democratic Congress comes after them.
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections held Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, meeting the exact condition President Donald Trump had attached a day earlier to a promise of preemptive pardons for his staff and allies. He made it on a “Pod Force One” episode with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, released Monday, Nov. 2.
Democrats held 54 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 44 as of Wednesday, Nov. 4, with some races still to be called, and they had won well past the 218 seats needed for a House majority. Democrats also held 28 governorships to the Republicans’ 20, including wins in Georgia, Texas and Ohio.
The J6 Precedent He Cited
Devine asked Trump whether he would grant preemptive pardons if Democrats took Congress and pursued prosecutions. “I would if I needed to. Sure,” he said. Pressed on whether that would cover everyone who had worked for him, he answered, “I’d do it. I did it for J6.” He named no one, announced no completed pardons and specified no offenses.
On his first day back in office in 2025, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 defendants charged over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He also pointed to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who in his final hours in the Oval Office pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, members and staff of the House Jan. 6 committee — which Trump called “a corrupt committee” — and several relatives, including his son Hunter. “That’s what Biden did. He gave everybody a pardon,” Trump said.
Devine raised proposals circulating on the left to investigate Elon Musk, seize assets or nationalize pieces of his business empire, including the arrest of the world’s richest man. “It won’t happen. It’s talk. But if it is talk, we’ll have to protect them,” Trump said. Some have also floated going after staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency, among them the aide Edward Coristine, known as “Big Balls.” Asked whether he would end up in Democratic crosshairs himself, Trump said, “Well, I don’t know about me.”
What a Pardon Cannot Stop
A pardon reaches federal criminal exposure only, and offers no defense against a state prosecution, a civil lawsuit or impeachment. Congressional investigators keep their own tools. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has said a Democratic House could use its subpoena power to examine “pay-to-play pardons.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told an audience at a University of Chicago event in October 2026 that a Democratic majority should build signature cases against the people who enabled the president, not just the president himself, so that college graduates think twice about taking a job in his administration. “I want that deterrence message,” she said. In a post on X, she wrote that anyone who helped misuse taxpayer dollars to benefit the president or his family, or who broke the law carrying out his guidance, should be held accountable, noting that the Supreme Court granted the president immunity, not the people who act at his behest.
Blaming Aides for Bad Polling
Pre-election polls put Democrats within reach of flipping both chambers, and Trump called them “rigged,” preferring the size of his rally crowds as an indicator and arguing Republicans would outrun expectations. He set his own deadline on whether pardons would be necessary: “We’ll know on Tuesday night.” He delivered his final midterm message Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Tuesday’s losses came as a surprise to him, and he vented his frustration at political aides, accusing them of giving him bad information about polling, according to reports. In an election-night phone interview on Tuesday, Nov. 3, Trump said he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results. “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them,” he said of the incoming Democratic majority, adding, “We’ll probably work something out.” He also noted that he has “total veto power.”
Trump then reversed his campaign-season message that voters treat elections as if he were on the ballot. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he posted on Truth Social. He made a similar point in the interview. “I wasn’t on the ticket, and because I wasn’t on the ticket, we couldn’t get enough people out to vote.”
A Red Hat Reading “VETO”
Trump posted a picture of a red hat reading “VETO” late Tuesday night, Nov. 3. Minutes earlier he had blamed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who lost to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, for his own defeat. “If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” Trump wrote.
Trump-backed candidates lost across the board on Nov. 3, among them Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race and Darline Graham, who was appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and lost to Democrat Annie Andrews. Both parties had been preparing for the arithmetic of a possible split government after the vote, with Trump floating vetoes alongside the pardon talk. Instead, Democrats swept both chambers.
