Burke: Pardon me? It’s an easy ask if you’re a Trump ‘rogue’
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 22, 2025
By Tom Burke / Herald Columnist
Hey, readers! Big news broke last week and I hope you didn’t miss it: Stealing money is OK.
With Trump daily flooding the zone with outrageous behavior — tariffs, Gestapo-like immigration arrests, government shutdowns, firing tens of thousands of civil service workers, extra-judicial killings of alleged drug runners, ludicrous claims about vaccines, deficit-exploding spending bills, compromising the Justice Department, denying climate change, a White House’ historic East Wing torn down for a ballroom, etc. — we often forget what he did last week, let alone last month or a year or three ago.
But a few minutes recollection makes it obvious that if you support the Big Lie, or the idea Trump is being persecuted, or applaud Project 2025 — BINGO! — you got a presidential pardon or commutation and a free pass to do any crime you fancy.
I mean, how else to explain how disgraced and expelled congressman George Santos, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud (to the tune of more than $370,000) was released from prison early.
His sentence was commuted last Friday. By Donald Trump.
Why you ask? Because he’s apparently not a criminal, he’s only a “rogue.” (Now isn’t that cute? A rogue?)
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison. Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!” Trump posted on social media.
Which means, I guess, that if I’m just a “rogue” (but who, as Trump said “had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”) it’s pretty much open season to lie and steal.
Now, of course, tax evasion used to be the kind of crime big New York real estate moguls (a la Donald Trump?) were convicted of. But if you are Todd and Julie Chrisley, two reality TV stars, and were sentenced to a dozen years for that crime in 2022, and had someone with a White House connection, you got yourself a pardon, just like they did.
Which means, apparently, neither stealing, election fraud or tax evasion merits a prison term. Even if you confess and plead guilty.
Bribery is okie-dokie too.
Dealing in drugs or weapons? No problem with federal laws.
Insurrection, attempting the violent overturn of an election, or threatening to hang the vice president are also not just condoned, but encouraged.
Oh, and plain-vanilla, run-of-the-mill white-collar crimes, they’re all OK as well.
Sorta.
Because there is one small, itsy-bitsy, no-biggie proviso for getting a free pass to steal money, steal elections, lie, deal drugs, attack police, or storm the Capitol: You gotta be a vigorous, loud, MAGA-approved Trump supporter. Or related to one.
Really.
And just like he pardoned a (Republican) sheriff convicted of federal bribery and fraud charges; former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who had his federal corruption conviction commuted by Trump in 2020; former Connecticut Republican Gov. John Rowland, who committed election fraud and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in 2015; Republican white-collar criminals Michael Milken and Bernard Kerik; and daughter Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law Charles Kushner, who was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering, and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment was set free after Ivanka whispered in Daddy’s ear.
Now if murder, conspiracy, extortion and money laundering is your thing; there’s no free ride unless you’re Larry Hoover. He was the founder/leader of the notorious Chicago Gangster Disciples, serving 150 to 200 years in the slammer for the above crimes; and then receiving another six federal life sentences for running a criminal enterprise from prison. But he had a pal, Kanye West, who was a pal of Trump’s and like magic, he got Hoover a Trump pardon. For the federal crimes. (Larry is still in stir for the murder charge, a state conviction for which a president can’t provide a pardon.)
And let’s never, ever forget Trump’s pardon of the more than 1,500 who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn Biden’s election win.
It’s what Trump called “a day of love and peace,” claiming supporters posed “zero threat.”
But that’s a flat-out lie evidenced by hundreds of video clips of Trump supporters beating police with flagpoles, batons, wooden clubs and baseball bats, deploying stun guns and chemical sprays, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police officers.
In pardoning the rioters, Trump said, “These are people who actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate.”
But they don’t love our country and a pardon wasn’t “appropriate.”
These people were convicted-by-a-jury-criminals answering Trump’s call to arms and his claim of the Big Lie. It’s disgusting he made the call, disgusting they did his bidding, and disgusting he condoned their actions.
Now the media timidly calls Trump an “authoritarian.”
He’s not.
He’s a fascist, meeting the dictionary definition of the word: “a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.”
Seven million Americans turned out Saturday for the real day of “love and peace,” the “No Kings” protest, saying “No” to Trump’s fascism. Seven million Americans claimed their right of free assembly and free speech. And 7 million Americans are telling all of us, as one protest sign said, “This is all over when enough of us say NO!”
No.
Slava Ukraini.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
