Lewis Goodall is really on point with this:

That is how Trumpism is best understood. It is about the free expression of power, without hindrance, even over our collective understanding. And this week, it reached a new apex: Trump wants the power to shape not only the present, but the past, history itself. That is how the pardoning of the January 6th insurrectionists should be seen. There was much speculation that Trump might only pardon some, not all of those impriosned, to leave some of the most egregious offenders, including those literally caught on film violently assaulting police officers. But he is said to have told his team to “fuck it. Release them all.” This wasn’t just about rewarding his people, though it is truly chilling to consider that he has released his own de facto paramilitary force, loyal entirely to himself, highly armed, precisely at the moment he takes away the state security provided to a whole host of his enemies. It’s about something deeper: about history and how we understand it.

In releasing everyone, the message he sends is that his narrative of January 6th is the correct one- that these were minor incidents. That we did not see what we saw, that we cannot believe our own eyes. This coincides with the new Congress, at Trump’s behest, investigating not the Jan6th insurrectionists, but the Congressional committee which investigated them. He and his allies have been spreading conspiracies about what happened at the Capitol for years. The pardons are the final coup de grace: Nothing could have happened because no crimes occurred. It was all just a liberal, Democratic confection, like everything else. As Orwell said, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” In effect, Trump pardoned himself.