[BLKNSLVR]

Trump's pardoning of Snowden would lose more presidential election support than it would win. Sure, there are plenty of people who would support the decision to pardon Snowden, but I can't see them being the type of people to vote for Trump based on that. Existing Trump supporters, on the other hand, I could see "punishing" Trump for his weakness in pardoning a "traitor who fled to Russia".

[differentView]

He can pardon him to test the effects on polling. If it helps, great. If it hurts him, get Snowden back, arrest him, and claim it was a trick to get the traitor that Obama couldn't get all along.

[BLKNSLVR]

Is un-pardoning a thing? I'd have figured that a pardon would mean that Trump wouldn't be able to follow it up with his arrest and claiming the pardon was a 'trick'.

Just writing that, though, it feels dirtily and precisely "Trump".

edit: grammar

[boomboomsubban]

You pardon certain crimes. As an example, you pardon Snowden for "all crimes related to NSA leaks," and then charge him with some kind if tax avoidance. It'd be dirty as hell, and make any trial much longer, but it's possible.

[throwaways885]

Eh... the old neocons aren't the same breed of conservative that is the Trump supporters. They seem very much in favour of pardoning Snowden.

[spookythrow]

You assume it is possible for Trump to lose presidential support. Just as he said, "I could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose voters". People don't care who gets elected, they really just vote party-line.

However, if Snowden were pardoned, and Cannabis were legalized, I do think Trump would win centrist and libertarians.

[lazyjones]

The media and the DNC would spin it as proof Trump is controlled by Russia. That's far more certain than some Republican voters disagreeing with the idea after considering this judgment.

[Applejinx]

No, they like Russia, and would be happy to consider Snowden's previous masters 'the Deep State'. The trouble there is that it only furthers a status where 'everything that is not literally Trump is the Deep State and must be destroyed'.

It's seriously weird to have a President and a large faction of Americans actively working to fight America as it currently stands. I'm sympathetic to ideas of reform, but they're not talking about reform, they're talking in terms like rounding up all those people and putting 'em in camps as unredeemable criminals/enemies. Nobody going on about 'Deep State' or 'Pizzagate' etc. are talking about reforms, they are behaving like it's an occupying army of absolute monsters that could never possibly be reformed or improved.

[jacobush]

“Caesar” became a hereditary title when Rome shifted from Republic to dictatorship.

I sometimes wonder if “President” will be the same.