This Saturday, President Donald J. Trump is scheduled to participate in the commissioning of the USS Gerald Ford, the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier. It’s an occasion to remember President Ford, who was a complicated President, one who tried to steer this nation past the tumult of Watergate and related crimes. Historians differ on whether Ford’s pardoning of his predecessor, President Nixon, was a mistake, but it’s a common view that it tarnished Ford’s legacy and damaged any chance he had for another term.
The timing for President Trump is, to say the least, ironic.

Talk of pardons is in the air. Senator Mark Warner has warned against them. President Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow, has been asked about it. It is time to talk about the possibility that President Trump will utilize his expansive pardon power to save the people around him — including his son and son-in-law — well before any criminal charges can be filed, if they are merited.

It is true that President Trump and his legal team have a variety of potential responses to growing accusations of collusion during the campaign or other possible crimes related to financial and business dealings — including allowing the investigation to progress and run its course. But the attacks on investigators, special prosecutor Robert Mueller, and even the firing of former FBI Director James Comey suggest that that isn’t the Trump team’s strategy.