Trump loves pardoning. He loves it so much, he skips all that annoying “process” stuff, and just does it directly.
He especially likes pardoning folks prosecuted by the previous Administration, because he can. And because of the message it sends to his own people under indictment or investigation, and to the investigators and prosecutors pursuing them.
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Sadly, this Infoplease page only reports the total number of pardons by former Presidents. As an aggregation, it also doesn't provide context about the nature of people receiving the pardons – were they famous politicians who got caught doing something, or were they anonymous people who are believed to have been convicted unfairly?
It's interesting to note that President Obama only issued 64 pardons in eight years – almost an order of magnitude lower than President Clinton.
https://www.infoplease.com/history-and-government/us-presidents/presidential-pardons
Regarding your comment on the annoying process stuff, here's what Attorney General Sessions (who oversees the annoying process stuff) said.
Sessions is of course correct in stating that a President is Constitutionally able to use any process he/she desires to determine who should get pardons. (Including watching "Fox & Friends.")
However, some grievous misuse of the pardon authority may result in a reactive Constitutional amendment limiting the President's pardon power.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/384935-sessions-defends-trumps-power-to-pardon-without-consulting-justice
Now I'm re-reading your title and imagining what would happen if the President Oprah talk were resurrected.
So let’s hear it for celebrity diplomacy. She goes there to appeal for pardons for people with huge drug sentences, and he pardons politicians?
+John E. Bredehoft
1. Bill Clinton's use of the pardon power was a bit dodgy. My recollection is that he did go through the process, and it was more political payback to supporters sort of stuff. I also seem to recall that the large majority of his pardons were going-out-the-door ones, which tends to be the pattern for some decades.
2. There is no question that the President has the power to pardon whomever he wants, and for whatever reason. The only actual restraints on the power are consequences — either not being re-elected or losing enough public support to be hamstrung in further endeavors (thus the use of going-out-the-door pardons), or using pardons for purposes such as (to draw something at random, of course) obstruction of justice, which could qualify as a high crime or misdemeanor charge in an impeachment proceeding.
"Because he's an ass hat who enjoys flouting his power, tearing down institutional restraint, and infuriating his opposition" is not, for better or worse, an impeachable offense.
3. About the only thing that could make me vote for Oprah would be if she were running against Trump.
Although I wonder if we'll have more Oprahs as Presidential candidates in the future. We already had the movie star President, but at least he had served two terms as Governor. Now we have the reality show President. So we could have future outside the Beltway stars from other fields entering Presidential politics.
I shudder to think what will happen when the current crop of YouTube stars reaches 35 years of age.
+John E. Bredehoft
President Pewdiepie?
Y'know what, it'd still be better than what we have right now.