This week, Donald Trump issued two dozen presidential pardons to a motley crew of wrongdoers, including shady politicians, fraudulent CEOs and other wealthy ne’er-do-wells. On that list were the Louisiana rapper NBA YoungBoy (whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden) and the Chicago gangster Larry Hoover.
Regardless of where you stand on American carceral culture and what we know about the ways the criminal justice system squashes Black people who have the misfortune of interacting with it, Trump handing out pardons to Hoover and Gaulden isn’t the magnanimous or justice-focused move he wants us to believe it is. Instead, it’s a clear effort to garner support from the Black community by way of its big names.
Gaulden, for his part, was convicted on gun-related charges and sentenced to just under two years in prison. He had already been released and this pardon just means he won’t have to follow through with his probation conditions.
For Hoover, Trump granted a commutation of his federal prison sentence; the former Gangster Disciples leader was serving six life sentences on conspiracy, extortion, drug and other criminal charges. Still, the 74-year-old won’t be coming home (he’s still on the hook for murder in the state of Illinois, a conviction that came with a hefty 200-year jail term).
So why is Trump pardoning exactly the kind of people – a gangster and a rapper – whom he despises, and whom he would typically disparage and cast as a danger to American society?
The answer is obvious if you’ve been paying attention: he’s done it before – and it seems to have worked.
A couple of reasons are often given for Trump’s apparent increase in support from Black voters.
Some voters believed Trump’s claims that Black Americans saw an economic boost under his first presidency, and that he achieved record low unemployment – which isn’t the full story. This is not to mention the fact that Black voters have also become increasingly disillusioned with the Democratic party. Still, one has to wonder just how many of the Black voters who switched sides were won over by disingenuous moves like Trump’s pardons.
Probably the most damning indication of the way Trump views Black Americans – and the instincts that drive his political decisions – are his comments about Black people who have experienced the criminal justice system.
At a gala in South Carolina in 2024, Trump said he was getting more Black support thanks to his criminal cases, because Black people, like him, have been historically mistreated by the criminal justice system.
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