WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that he would issue preemptive pardons to Elon Musk and other aides if he had to protect them from Democratic investigations, speaking in a New York Post podcast interview released the day before the midterm elections.
Trump made the remarks on “Pod Force One,” the Post’s podcast hosted by Miranda Devine. Devine raised talk of House Democrats arresting Musk and seizing his assets if they win power, and Trump played down the talk before adding a condition.
“It’s talk, but if it is talk, we’ll have to protect them,” he said.
Asked whether he could pardon people before any charges, Trump pointed to his predecessor. “That’s what Biden did. He gave everybody a pardon,” he said.
“I would if I needed to, sure. I wouldn’t even think about it. I did it for J6.”
Devine also named Edward Coristine, a programmer who worked in Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency before resigning in June 2025, as someone Democrats might target. Trump said he did not know whether he himself was a target.
What Democrats could investigate
Democrats are strong favorites to take the House in the Nov. 3 elections, which would hand them the committees that run investigations. They have signaled they could look into Musk’s time leading the government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, his companies’ federal contracts and his possible role in cutting Ukraine’s access to Starlink, the satellite internet service run by his company SpaceX.
Musk has been Trump’s biggest financial backer by a wide margin. He spent nearly $290 million to help Trump in the 2024 election and has put $474 million into boosting Republicans in the 2026 midterms, according to the New York Times, including $212 million for Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton.
A pardon would have limits even if Trump issued one. Even a preemptive pardon would reach only federal offenses. It could not stop a state prosecutor from filing charges, and it would not shield anyone from a civil lawsuit.
The Biden precedent
Before leaving the White House in 2025, President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons meant to shield Trump’s critics from prosecution or investigation by the incoming administration. The recipients included former Rep. Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff and other members and staff of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and Biden’s son Hunter Biden and other family members.
Trump has used the pardon power freely in his second term. His clemency grants now cover more than 1,700 people, most of them charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Dozens of others were business figures convicted of white-collar crimes.
Voters decide control of Congress on Tuesday.
Also Read: Trump Says He’ll Be ‘Mr. Veto’ if Democrats Win Congress
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