A former federal pardon attorney flagged the "cynical purpose" of President Donald Trump's latest batch of pardons during a podcast interview on Monday.

Liz Oyer, the former pardon attorney in the Biden Department of Justice, discussed Trump's decision to pardon five former NFL football players, one of whom was deceased, last week during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with Joanna Coles. She argued that there was no legally justifiable reason for the pardons and noted that the five players were surprised to have been granted pardons because they had not applied for them.

But there seemed to be a higher purpose for the move, Oyer argued.

"He clearly thought that there was some constituency that he could ingratiate himself with by pardoning these former football players, but there really wasn't any specific request," Oyer said. "It seems like for the pardons, there wasn't any specific need that he was addressing. He just decided to do it, probably for some cynical purpose that involved appealing to a certain constituency of maybe NFL fans."

The move occurred as Trump and the Republican Party are gearing up for a midterm election that is shaping up to be contentious, at best. Trump has alarmed election experts with his efforts to take election data from the Fulton County, Georgia, election offices. He also threatened to send ICE agents to polling centers during the midterm election itself.

President Donald Trump's latest attack against a top Democrat on Monday night left analysts and observers astounded.

Trump posted on Truth Social that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had dropped out of the 2028 presidential race, a campaign that Newsom has yet to confirm that he is running. The post came after MAGA piled on Newsom for making a comment about his intelligence that they construed to be a negative comment about Black people.

"Wow! Gavin Newscum just dropped out of the Presidential Race!!! President DJT," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Analysts and observers reacted to the post on social media.

"Trump just blinked. He's scared," journalist Oscar Gonzalez posted on X.

Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, posted on Bluesky that Newsom "can now declare Trump just resigned."

"Our president's AI-generated reality continues apace, I guess," economist Sky Marchini posted on Bluesky.

"He did?!" independent journalist Chris Cilliza posted on X. "Uh...."

Trump's attacks came as public polling showed the president losing support as the midterms approached. In public remarks on Monday, Trump said polls showing he has an around 40% approval rating are "wrong," and claimed that his approval is "much higher" without providing evidence.

President Donald Trump wants to project a certain image on the global stage, and some world leaders have learned how to use that to their advantage, according to one expert.

Trump wants to appear as a ruthless leader on par with strongmen like Russia's Vladimir Putin or China's Xi Jinping, according to Fiona Hill, Trump's Russia advisor during the first administration. Hill said during an interview on the "The Court of History" podcast on Monday that Trump's desire to be seen in this light gives world leaders a psychological advantage when they interact with the U.S. president, because they have turned that desire for adoration into currency.

"Putin, I think, understands it perfectly," Hill said. "Because if you look at Putin, he rations out his access to him for Trump. He kind of dangles things out of there, plays just hard to get all the time because he knows that Trump, more than anything else, wants his adulation and respect, and Putin's just not going to give that because that's currency. That's extraordinarily valuable."

Hill recalled being on phone calls between Trump and Putin and noticing that the Russian leader had "so much of an advantage" against Trump. It also appears that "he knows this" as well, Hill said.

"He is not that ruthless," she continued, referring to Trump. "He wants to be treated as if he is, but he's just not that ruthless. And that's why he is intimidated by Putin, because he wants everybody else to think of the United States in that same manner. He doesn't want to be benign and benevolent. If he can't be respected, he wants to be feared. He doesn't want to be made fun of or to become a meme."