It would disgust decent people everywhere if SBF got a pardon. So I’d say he has a shot! The only question is: what can he offer Trump? Advice on crypto scams, perhaps?
Well, there is a small problem: he screwed over rich people, that’s a big no no.
The podcast he went on was utterly bonkers lol. He was complaining that the Democrats didn’t get him out of legal trouble even tho he donated so much money to them. So now he’s switching sides to Republican since they actually take care of their criminals lol.
The requirements to get pardoned under the current administration are:
- Be white
- Be rich or high profile
- Be generally aligned with the right
- Claim your incarceration was politically motivated (it almost never is)
Your crime does not matter. Trump will accuse foreign refugees of being drug dealers and violent criminals, then pardon drug dealers and violent criminals if they were white and high profile enough (Google Ross Ulbricht as an example).
So, all things considered, SBF seems to qualify!
Be generally aligned with the right
It’s gotta be authoritarian right though… I can’t see a pro-immigration, pro-choice, pro-gun, anti-tariff, anti-corruption (generally pro-freedom, that thing republicans pretend to like) libertarian getting anywhere with trump, it wouldn’t surprise me if a tankie got along better given they’re into most of the things trump likes
I disagree. Most of the people Trump has pardoned, helped or gotten along with are libertarians.
They’re millionaires / billionaires who hate taxation and regulations because it gets in the way of their ruthless means of making money.
Trump is more than happy to help them to do that. He runs the government like a quid-pro-quo crime syndicate where you can buy yourself favours, including getting out of jail.
His authoritarianism only targets the poor; whatever scapegoat-du-jour the far-right hate today (trans, LGBT, minorities, immigrants); and anyone that tries to protect them.
He needs votes to stay in power, and since he can’t appeal to the left because everything he does is diametrically opposed with them (regulation, social spending, taxation of the rich) he has to pander to the far-right to keep a majority. Even if he is likely more right than far-right himself.
