By the end of the day, Attorney General William Barr was said to be considering resignation, though the Justice Department denied such suggestions. The attorney general said last week that Mr. Trump was making his work “impossible,” and the president agreed with him on Tuesday, saying: “I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think that’s true.”

White House officials said Mr. Trump had followed recommendations from friends, celebrities and campaign donors in granting full pardons or commutations to 11 people. (A commutation makes a punishment milder without wiping out the underlying conviction.)

The details: The Supreme Court has ruled that presidents have unlimited authority to grant pardons for federal crimes. Here’s a full list of those who received clemency on Tuesday. Among them are Michael Milken, the Wall Street financier and so-called junk bond king of the 1980s, and Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who essentially tried to sell the Senate seat that Barack Obama vacated after he was elected president.

Perspective: In the years since Mr. Milken was convicted of securities fraud, influential friends have portrayed him as a maverick crushed by the establishment. Not so, says our business columnist James Stewart, who wrote a book about Mr. Milken.