You heard it here first: President Trump will bow to pressure from MAGA media influencers and pardon Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis policeman convicted of killing a Black man by kneeling on his neck for nearly 10 minutes.

Trump has already demonstrated a willingness to use presidential pardons to score political points. He pardoned Jan. 6 rioters who sought to overturn the results of a legitimate election — some of whom menaced and even injured police officers. In a shameful perversion of justice, he granted clemency to 1,500 people involved in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Around the same time, and to less fanfare, he also pardoned two D.C. police officers convicted in connection with the killing of a young Black man in October 2020.

Is the white policeman who cruelly killed a Black man in Minneapolis next?

Last week, influential right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro launched a petition urging Trump to pardon Chauvin on his federal convictions. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal crimes after being convicted by a Minnesota jury and sentenced to more than two decades for murdering George Floyd, a Black man suspected of passing a counterfeit bill, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Shapiro’s petition quickly gained traction on conservative social media, particularly on X (formerly Twitter), owned by Trump’s biggest financial supporter, Elon Musk.

When Trump was asked about “allies [who] are calling on you to pardon” Chauvin,

© The Hill