Throughout the first term of his Presidency, Republicans continued to support Donald Trump despite a series of actions that would have normally resulted in impeachment, if not imprisonment.    

And they continued to support him after he left office—and after his re-election as President on November 5, 2024.       

Forgiven Crime 29: Trump has echoed Adolf Hitler in attacking immigrants: “They’re poisoning the blood of our country. They’ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world.” 

Republicans have refused to condemn those remarks—or the original source—Mein Kampf-–of those remarks. 

Forgiven Crime 30: On January 20, 2025—his first day as re-elected President—Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack. This sends a clear message that his supporters can commit virtually any crime against his opponents with impunity.

Forgiven Crime 31:  Trump signed 26 executive orders. Among the results: Reversing climate change initiatives, eliminating DEI programs, changing the federal designation for the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and initiating a federal hiring freeze.  

Executive Order signed by President Harry S. Truman

Forgiven Crime 32: Trump revoked the security clearances of 51 former Intelligence officials. Their “crime”: Signing a letter in 2020 stating that reports about a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, had “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Forgiven Crime 33: Trump revoked an executive order on Artificial Intelligence safety signed by former President Biden. Biden’s order, introduced in 2023, aimed to establish safeguards for the rapidly advancing AI technology. 

Forgiven Crime 34: During a press conference in North Carolina, President Trump reaffirmed his stance that Canada should become the 51st state. Rejecting the longtime friendship between the two countries, Trump took an increasingly aggressive stance toward Canada, imposing steep tariffs and even threatening military intervention. 

Forgiven Crime 35: Trump fired the inspectors general—who are charged with protecting the government from waste and corruption—from more than a dozen federal agencies.

Forgiven Crime 36: Several career lawyers who worked on the criminal investigations into Donald Trump were fired by Acting Attorney General James McHenry because he “do[es] not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”

Seal of the U.S. Department of Justice

Forgiven Crime 37: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth informed former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley “that he is revoking the authorization for his security detail and suspending his security clearance.”

In addition, Hegseth ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general to open “an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding General Milley’s conduct so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination.”

Milley’s “crimes”: After the Trump-incited January 6 attempted coup, Milley assured his Chinese counterpart that the U.S. was not about to start a military conflict.  And in his farewell speech upon his retirement, said that service members “don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. … We don’t take an oath to an individual.” 

Forgiven Crime 38: Trump ordered a purge of about a half-dozen executive assistant directors at the FBI. These were some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations. 

Their “crime”: Trump blamed them for investigating his inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and his illegal holding of highly sensitive national security documents after leaving office.

Seal of the FBI

Forgiven Crime 39: On February 1, Trump arbitrarily placed tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% on imports from China with no stated exemptions.

Forgiven Crime 40: Without explanation, Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices. 

Forgiven Crime 41: Following Trump’s executive orders, federal agencies deleted multiple federal web pages and data. Among the agencies: The Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Census Bureau. The changes affected content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), gender identity, public health research, environmental policy and social programs.

Forgiven Crime 42: Following Trump’s anti-DEI executive order, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) deleted content that included the achievements of nonwhite groups, such as Navajo code code talkers, black Tuskegee Airmen, Medal of Honor winners and women veterans. As in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, those that Trump hates are made to disappear from history.

Forgiven Crime 43: Trump fired the board members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and appointed himself as chairman—just as Joseph Stalin made himself arbiter of what was permissible for artists in the Soviet Union.

Forgiven Crime 44:  When the Associated Press refused to designate the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” as Trump has decreed it now is, Trump banned its reporters from the White House press pool and official White House events.

A federal judge ordered him to reinstate the Associated Press’s access to presidential events on grounds that his ban violated the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.