Donald Trump has shot himself in the foot yet again and it shall not be easy to bandage the self-inflicted wound. Now going through the wrap-up motions of his besmirched term, he has managed to reinforce his dubious distinction as President of the United States of America. He has now accorded precedence to personal chemistry over the certitudes of justice.

It thus comes about that over the weekend, he commuted the prison sentence of his longtime associate, Roger Stone, all but guaranteeing that he will never face justice for crimes he committed while obstructing an investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign links with WikiLeaks and the Russian intelligence agencies who had attempted to tip the election in Trump’s favour and against the prospects of Hillary Clinton.

In the net, Stone has escaped punishment for his crimes. There has been an almost immediate backlash to the decision, with fellow Republican Mitt Romney stoutly condemning what he calls the President’s “unprecedented, historic corruption”. The reputation of the White House has hit the reefs. Not that there is no precedent for Trump’s spurious generosity. On closer reflection, executive clemency has been misused by Presidents throughout American history.

It bears recall that George HW Bush had once pardoned six officials who had been involved in the Iran-Contra scandal ~ an act which may have been intended to cover up his own wrongdoing. George W Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who had obstructed a federal investigation into the illegal outing of a CIA operative who was critical of his administration. Having said that, the narrative doesn’t make Trump’s actions any less troubling.

In fact, by exposing that there is little or no restraint on the use of executive clemency, the uppermost worry in the USA today is how much further the President ~ whose disregard for political and constitutional norms is without precedent ~ might go in the future. By and large, US Presidents have issued their most controversial pardons furtively, at the end of their terms in office. But Trump has reaffirmed his “ability” to accord the short shrift to the principle of the rule of law when it comes to his own allies.

In 2017, he pardoned the former Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who had violated the constitutional rights of Arizonans. During the Mueller investigation, which exposed evidence that Trump himself may have obstructed justice, a crime for which he could still be charged after leaving office, the President announced a full pardon to Libby, seemingly with the objective of sending the message that he would forgive those ~ like Stone ~ who committed obstruction to protect him.

In the aftermath of the “clean chit”, it would appear that the structure of American governance can be exploited and abused by an unscrupulous President. Enough damage has been caused to the office already, and it is a depleted inheritance that Trump is likely to bequeath.