 "President Donald Trump attends an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event at Capital One Arena, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (Photo: AP)")
Hours after US President Donald Trump promised to realise the dreams of Black Americans’ civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, he pardoned a host of White Supremacist figures on Monday, including the former leader of militia Proud Boys who has previously been convicted of vandalising a Black church.
In one of the first actions in his second term, Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 persons charged and convicted for taking part in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6. Those pardoned include Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of White Supremacist, neo-Nazi militia Proud Boys, who was one of the organisers of the mob that attacked the Capitol for Trump. He also commuted the sentence of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of racist, far-right militia Oath Keepers.
On Jan. 6, 2021, when the US Senate was certifying the 2020 presidential election result, Trump egged on a mob to attack the US Capitol to hijack the certification and illegally overturn the election in his favour. Even as the mobs of his supporters breached the Capitol, it failed to overturn the result.
‘We will make Martin Luther King Jr’s dream come true’
At this inauguration speech, which took place on the Martin Luther King Jr Day, Trump said that he would work to realise the dreams of the civil rights leader.
Thanking the Black and Hispanic communities for their “tremendous outpouring of love and trust”, Trump said he would realise the dreams of King.
“I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. Today is Martin Luther King Day and his honor — this will be a great honor — but in his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true,” said Trump.
Hours after promising to uphold King’s vision, however, Trump rewarded the White supremacist militias Proud Boys and Oath Keepers with pardons for supporting his efforts to violently overturn the 2020 election.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump pardons violent White Supremacists
Trump granted a “full, complete and unconditional pardon" to nearly 1,600 supporters convicted for attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 for him.
Repeating the lie that he was a victim of a Democratic plot to steal the election and his supporters attacking the Capitol were unjustly tried and convicted, Trump dubbed them as “hostages”.
“So this is January 6. These are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 were pardoned. Full pardon…We hope they come out tonight frankly…They’ve already been in jail for a long time. These people have been destroyed,” said Trump as he signed the pardons.
Those pardoned included former Proud Boys head Tarrio and 13 other Proud Boys members. Tarrio had been serving a 22-year sentence.
Moreover, Trump commuted the sentence of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, and eight of his fellow militias along with five Proud Boys militias. Unlike a pardon, commutation ends the prison term but does not acquit the convict of their crimes.
With the executive order, Trump also dismissed all pending cases against his supporters accused but not yet convicted or sentenced for acts on Jan. 6, 2021.
Proud Boys leader pardoned by Trump vandalised Black church
In addition to leading the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, Proud Boys’ Tarrio had been convicted for vandalising a Black church in Washington DC in December 2012.
While several Trump supporters convicted for the Jan. 6 violence were booked under relatively not-so-serious charges, Tarrio was convicted for seditious conspiracy, which is a serious crime amounting to using violent force against the government.
Tarrio was described by prosecutors as a savvy, street-fighting extremist who helped fellow militias in “Trump’s army” initiate an assault on the Capitol, according to The New York Times.
In December 2020, Tarrio responded to a call for “wild” protests by Trump in Washington DC on Jan. 6 and established a crew of “hand-selected members” for the rally that was called inside the Proud Boys as the Ministry of Self-Defense, according to court papers cited by The Times.
The prosecutors said that Tarrio and other Proud Boys members were “thirsting for violence and organising for action” after Trump lost the 2020 election and attacked the Capitol “to keep their preferred leader [Trump] in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it”.
Proud Boys is a White supremacist, neo-Nazi organisation was established in 2016. The militia’s rise stemmed from the rise of the broader far-right extremism in the United States fanned by Trump and his Make America Great Again movement. Along with other racist militias like Oath Keepers, Proud Boys has been part of several racist events, such as the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 when torch-lit marches with Nazi chants “You will not replace us” and “Blood and soil” were carried out, followed by an attack by a far-right extremists on anti-far right protesters that killed one persons and injured dozens.