Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing life behind bars if found guilty at his ongoing sex-trafficking trial, but old pal Donald Trump on Friday hinted he could be the “All About the Benjamins” performer’s pardoning guardian angel — maybe.

“I would certainly look at the facts if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked if he would pardon Combs. “It wouldn’t have any impact on me,” Trump added, teasing the situation out as he loves to do.

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Listening to his defense lawyer Brian Steel cross-exam his former personal assistant “Mia,” Combs was in court in New York City today as he has been for almost every hearing since being arrested last fall and since the criminal trial started May 12.  

Facing off against the tumultuous but powerful U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the much-accused Combs faces charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more.

Just a few feet away from Combs himself and the jury of eight men and four women, “Mia” told the lower Manhattan federal courtroom that she was raped multiple times by the Bad Boy Records founder. That testimony is similar to that of previous witness and ex-Combs girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who spoke at grueling length about the violence and filmed sex marathon “freak-offs” in which she says she was forced to participate over the couple’s decade-long relationship. Like other witnesses in the trial, “Mia” also spoke of watching Combs beat, abuse and manipulate Ventura, as he did to many of the people in his orbit.

Insisting that “no one has asked” for a pardon for Combs, Trump today went on to say, “I know people are thinking about it.” With a nod to the increasing rumors of outreach from Combs’ crew to Trump’s team, the former Apprentice host added: “I know they’re thinking about it. I think people have been very close to asking.”

Always one to reward friends, supporters and donors, Trump recently gave pardons to Todd and Julie Chrisley, the reality show stars who were sentenced in 2022 after fraud and tax evasion convictions.

“I’d look at what’s happening, and I haven’t been watching it too closely, although it’s certainly getting a lot of coverage,” Trump said Friday at the White House of the Combs trial. “I haven’t seen him. I haven’t seen him. I haven’t spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, sort of that relationship busted up.”

Under the presidential pardon powers, Trump doesn’t have to wait for a jury to find Combs guilty to get him off the hook. As people around Combs know, POTUS could issue a preemptive pardon for the man once known as Puffy and make this all go away ASAP.

Other than the Combs question, facing a just-published New York Times exposé detailing Elon Musk’s alleged ketamine and other drug use, Trump’s Oval Office farewell to his top donor and Department of Government Efficiency chief became another freewheeling exercise in deflection and softballs.

To put that exercise in perspective, when queried about the NYT‘s story that last year on the campaign trail stumping for Trump, the world’s richest man had been “using drugs far more intensely than previously known,” Musk flipped the question to an attack on the paper, mocking its investigative coverage of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s interference in the 2016 Presidential election and more and a recent court ruling over its Pulitzer Prize on the topic.

Musk quipped: “That New York Times? Let’s move on.” And the press corps did, with no one asking a follow-up question.

With questions about marital advice for French President Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden’s mental state from a carefully curated press pool, the softballs represented a clear example of the squeeze the media has gotten from this White House and the injection of MAGA-supporting outlets. The few serious questions about tariffs, banning foreign students at Ivy League universities, the war in Ukraine, and a Middle East ceasefire got short shrift from Trump and Musk and more partisan rhetoric.

(L-R) Donald Trump and Elon Musk speak to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Covered live by the cable news networks and streamed on multiple feeds on multiple platforms, Trump and Musk’s mutual admiration club saw POTUS seated at the Resolute desk reading in great part from a binder in front of him, while the SpaceX boss loomed over Trump in his traditional all-black uniform with “Dogefather” T-shirt and a MAGA ballcap. Starting a bit later than its scheduled 1:30 p.m. ET time, the bulk of the presser was more a meandering Trump monologue of half-truths, outright lies and falsehoods, the “rigged” 2020 election, the Biden autopen and the usual greatest hits, with some Oval Office redecoration praise tossed in from a fast-and-loose-with-the-facts Musk.

About to hit the deadline on his time as an official advisor to Trump, Musk announced this week he would leave his controversial role in the administration to refocus on his businesses. Under regulations around financial disclosure and more, an individual like Musk can only serve as a special government employee for a period not exceeding 130 days per year.

Perceived to be crossing the line ethically with benefits to his companies from his administration position and close proximity to Trump, Musk’s chainsaw approach became the opposite of an exercise in cost saving and a clown show in execution. Promising to save the taxpayers up to $2 trillion, Musk and his DOGE crew claimed in the end to bring in around $175 billion; ore than a few analysts actually pegged the number closer to $16 billion. While not chump change on any level, the number is dwarfed by the estimated expenditures of Trump to add up to $5 trillion to the already ballooning federal deficit.

Even today, Musk swore that DOGE would cut and save $1 trillion from the federal government.

Combs’ trial is expected to last another four weeks. Working on a daily 9 a.m-3 p.m. ET schedule, with wiggle room to go an hour longer here and there if required, Judge Arun Subramanian has promised the jury they will be done by July 4. That’s when a round of Independence Day pardons could be coming from Trump.