“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:36

God’s mercy flows from His holiness, His righteousness, His love, and His desire that we confess and repent of our sin. Divine mercy is not arbitrary, self-serving or transactional.

“He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His love for those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:10-12

God’s mercy is extended even to His enemies. It was ultimately expressed through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son – the Son who repeatedly demonstrated mercy to the humble, the poor in spirit, the helpless and even those who persecuted Him. Christ’s mercy was restorative rather than tribal.

In contrast, the mercy bestowed by Donald Trump is entirely transactional, utterly tribal in its nature. It is given only if it benefits him politically, financially or, most importantly, egotistically.

Presidential pardons are constitutional acts of executive clemency, not inherently immoral in themselves. Every modern president has used them. But the moral character of mercy depends heavily on:

• who receives it,
• why it is granted,
• whether truth and repentance matter,
• and whether mercy is applied consistently.

Donald Trump fails on all accounts. Consider these three pardons granted to political acolytes:

• Roger Stone — Convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering during the Russia investigation. Trump commuted his sentence in 2020 and later granted a full pardon. Critics saw it as protecting a loyal associate.
• Paul Manafort — Pardoned after convictions for tax fraud, bank fraud, and other financial crimes uncovered during the Mueller investigation.
• Michael Flynn — Pardoned after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia’s ambassador.

Each of these individuals lied. Of course, the house of Trump is built on falsehoods. These fabrications not only protect the perpetrators – they protect Trump. He rewards unrepentance, because remorse conflicts with his contrived narrative.

This is particularly true of the January 6 defendants. Certainly, the offenders demonstrated their loyalty to POTUS by seeking to violently overturn the will of voters, but I believe the primary driver of Trump’s blanket pardons was his demented mind – convincing himself that his concocted story of a stolen election would be more credible if these so-called “patriots” were no longer behind bars.

But not all of Trump’s pardons were rewards to loyalists who denied the truth. Many were motivated by simple greed. For example:

• BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, and executive Gregory Dwyer — Crypto executives pardoned in 2025 after pleading guilty in anti-money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act cases. The pardons came amid Trump’s aggressive courting of crypto donors and sizable family investments in crypto ventures.
• Changpeng “CZ” Zhao — Binance founder pardoned in late 2025 after pleading guilty to money-laundering-related violations. The pardon drew scrutiny because of Binance’s reported connections to Trump-family crypto enterprises and the administration’s broader embrace of the crypto industry.

But we had to wait until May of 2026 to encounter the most egregious of Trump’s pardons – his manipulation of the US DOJ to effectively pardon himself and his family of income tax fraud.

The contrast between the mercy of God and the “mercy” of Donald Trump is profound, both morally and biblically. Where the Lord’s mercy says “repent and be restored,” Trump sees repentance as weakness – and restoration as a reward for putting him above the Constitution.