On the morning of Thursday, Oct. 23, Donald Trump signed one of the most scandalous pardons of his presidency, extending clemency to Changpeng Zhao, founder of the crypto exchange Binance, who helped finance the president’s stablecoin and put money in the Trump family’s pockets. Hours later, a reporter asked the Republican why he’d taken such a step.
He replied, “I don’t know.”
A week later, the president sat down with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for a “60 Minutes” interview, and the correspondent offered Trump another opportunity to explain what appeared to be a brazenly corrupt pardon. After having had a week to think about it, he still didn’t have much of an answer.
O'DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao?TRUMP: Are you ready? I don't know who he isO'DONNELL: His crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2b purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And they you pardoned him.TRUMP: Here's the thing — I know nothing about it
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-11-03T00:56:08.488Z
After O’Donnell reminded Trump that federal prosecutors had successfully prosecuted Zhao for having caused “significant harm to U.S. national security,” essentially by aiding terrorist groups and their financing, she asked the most basic of questions: “Why did you pardon him?”
The president replied, “OK, are you ready? I don’t know who he is.”
After Trump rambled for a while, the CBS News journalist reminded Trump that Zhao “pled guilty to anti-money-laundering laws,” two years before he helped facilitate a multibillion-dollar deal for Trump’s family business. “How do you address the appearance of pay-for-play?” she asked.
“Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy,” the Republican replied, adding, “I know nothing about the guy.”
Broadly speaking, we’re left with a limited number of options when trying to come to terms with the president’s position. It’s possible, for example, that he was simply lying: Trump might very well know exactly who Zhao is, which would make sense, in part because of the billionaire’s role in generating wealth for the Trump family and in part because the president just signed a pardon for him 11 days ago.
The other possibility is that Trump was telling the truth: Perhaps White House officials simply put a document in front of him and told him to sign it, and because he’s a disengaged, bystander president with a limited understanding of the events unfolding around him, he did what his aides recommended.
Neither of these possible explanations is especially encouraging. Complicating matters further, the White House and much of the Republican Party is heavily invested in the idea that Joe Biden was so impaired during his presidency that he signed pardons — or, more to the point, used an autopen to sign pardons — without knowing anything about the beneficiary of the clemency. Indeed, during the same “60 Minutes” interview, Trump argued, “Biden didn’t have a clue. He illegally used, as you know, a machine, the autopen, in order to give pardons to people.” The smear is ugly and baseless, but it’s also become a political dilemma of sorts for the president slandering his predecessor. On the one hand, Trump wants the public to believe Biden didn’t know who he was pardoning. On the other, Trump also wants the public to believe that he pardoned Zhao, despite having no idea who he is. The Republican and his team have had plenty of time to work out a coherent set of talking points on this. That they’ve failed speaks volumes.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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