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Trump announced a pardon for Dinesh D'Sousa, which was unusual in that D'Sousa had plead guilty to his crime and had not applied for a pardon.

This starts to make sense when you realize that D'Sousa's crime was illegal campaign finance contributions. (D'Sousa had 2 friends donate $10,000 each with the promise he would repay them, in order to get around the limitation on individual contributions.)

D'Sousa was tried in the Southern District of New York, where Michael Cohen is to be tried, quite possibly on illegal campaign finance contributions. Very subtle, Mr. President...

It's reported that Trump is considering pardoning Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich.

I'm trying to imagine the universe where Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Sousa, Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich are connected. That would make for a fascinating dinner soirée.

There's a few ways you could imagine it as a message, especially regarding the Russia investigation, but my instinct is that might be reading more sophistication into Trump than is actually there.

That this story got way more coverage than the US starting global trade war on the same day strikes me as crazy.

Most likely Trump will be issuing pardons for:
Martin Shkreli the Pharmabro.
Jeff Skilling, former CEO of Enron.
John du Pont, wrestling enthusiast.
Bernard Madoff, former Wall Street Darling.
Bernie Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom.
Ronald Watson Lafferty, Executioner for the Lord.
Michael Cohen, a former attorney for the Best Boss Ever.

It seems Drumpf likes to accuse people he considers enemies of having his own faults, and likes to pardon criminal friends for committing his own crimes.

EAllusion wrote:There's a few ways you could imagine it as a message, especially regarding the Russia investigation, but my instinct is that might be reading more sophistication into Trump than is actually there.

I don't think one needs to be sophisticated to know this is a good way to send a message.

That this story got way more coverage than the US starting global trade war on the same day strikes me as crazy.

Agreed. Trump is hurting American workers and economy. Trade wars don't help anyone. It is a little surprising given that they should know that all these countries will retaliate with their own tariffs aimed at republicans areas in the upcoming elections.

This seems to be little more than just straight up Trump french-kissing The Base’s collective ass. No surprises here.