Could Donald Trump pardon himself if he is re-elected as president?

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the 2020 election

For former president Donald Trump, it is business as usual.

He has scheduled a campaign event in New Hampshire next week, just days after he appeared in court on charges of rigging the 2020 presidential election with conspiracy to “impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit".

Just two days later, a Florida court will hear additional charges that have been filed against him in the case of the classified documents he took from the White House while in office.

A person holds up a sign with a photograph of former President Donald Trump outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump arrived at the Courthouse to be arraigned on Thursday afternoon after being indicted on four felony counts for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Indeed, none of the charges brought against him over the past few months – not least the most recent – have caused him to waiver even one iota from his campaign to become president for the third time.

It may seem strange, but the US constitution does not bar those convicted of a crime from running for president. Other, more woolly laws, could theoretically allow for him to be disqualified under the constitution’s 14th amendment, which says that a person cannot hold office if they have taken an oath to the United States – and has subsequently engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country. When Mr Trump became president, he took such an oath in his inauguration ceremony, leaving him open to potential legal challenges, of which there could be many.

If he wins the next election and has by then been convicted, he could, theoretically, pardon himself – a legal possibility which has so far, in American history, remained untested.

Other Republican candidates have also suggested that if they were elected, they would also pardon Mr Trump. By doing this, they are hoping to get the support of the pro-Trump electorate, on the off chance that even they may prefer an alternative to a president with multiple convictions, despite their loyalty to the tycoon.

Of course, the concept of running for president is a pipe dream for almost all of the other nominees, especially considering that, incredibly, polls show that Republicans still want Mr Trump to be president. The latest, from the New York Times and Siena College, found 54 per cent of the GOP (signed up members of the Republican Party eligible to vote for a candidate) still back Mr Trump.

His nearest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, is on just 17 per cent. Meanwhile, the candidate most vocal about pardoning Trump if he were to be elected, is entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who, according to the same poll, is currently standing on just two per cent of the Republican vote. Mr Ramaswamy branded this week’s indictment “un-American” and said he would back Mr Trump all the way.

The former president has claimed the various trials he is facing – and they are numerous – could see him facing a combined 561 years behind bars. Yet in another quirk of American law, there is nothing to stop Mr Trump from running for president even if he is convicted and jailed before the election.

As a result, becoming president and getting himself a pardon could be a way of avoiding prison.

And if anyone is likely to have the chutzpah to test the previously-untested possibility of a self presidential pardon, it is Mr Trump.