Former President Joe Biden's pre-emptive pardon for retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will give the retired military official a shield against any action that President Donald Trump might take against him amid their highly public feud.

Donald Trump has been in office for less than 24 hours, but his administration is already working overtime to strip personnel from the executive branch who “are not aligned” with Trump’s “vision to Make America Great Again.

Trump said Tuesday his administration is in the process of “identifying and removing” more than 1,000 Biden appointees.

President Biden noted that the "should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing."

The decision comes after Trump warned of an enemies list of those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss.

With just hours left of his presidency, Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House Jan. 6 committee.

It follows threats by Trump to levy import taxes of 25% on Mexico and Canada, accusing them of allowing undocumented migrants and drugs into the US.

On the second day of his presidency, Donald Trump secured yet another victory from his ally Judge Aileen Cannon.

The US president used the final hours of his presidency to issue preemptive pardons to those he described as potentially being a target of "unjustified (and) politically motivated prosecutions", as well as a number of close family members.

President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons for prominent critics of President-elect Donald Trump and members of his own family, using extraordinary executive prerogative as a shield against revenge by his incoming successor.

Milley has, at times, responded forcefully to Trump’s comments, taking a shot at Trump in his farewell speech as Joint Chiefs chair in September 2023, telling gathered service members, “We don ...

Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer. Ms. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and an author of “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” a book about the collapse of Enron. Mr. Silver is the author of “On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything.”