It makes sense that Trump’s friendship with Arpaio goes back to their days as Birther Buddies. Of course it does. They bonded over malevolent destructive racism, Arpaio got busted for malevolent destructive racism, Trump pardoned him because he’s a fan of malevolent destructive racism.

They’re also both sadists who go out of their way to humiliate and harm people they dislike. Naturally they’re besties.

As Joseph Arpaio’s federal case headed toward trial this past spring, President Trump wanted to act to help the former Arizona county sheriff who had become a campaign-trail companion and a partner in their crusade against illegal immigration.

The president asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation.

“Oh, gee, no, Mr President, we can’t actually drop criminal cases just because the defendant is our beloved racist buddy. There are some rules and even you have to obey them. I know that seems kind of weird but it’s true.”

So the president waited, all the while planning to issue a pardon if Arpaio was found in contempt of court for defying a federal judge’s order to stop detaining people merely because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants. Trump was, in the words of one associate, “gung-ho about it.”

“We knew the president wanted to do this for some time now and had worked to prepare for whenever the moment may come,” said one White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the action.

Because Arpaio is such an awesome guy, making prisoners wear pink jump suits and live in uninsulated tents in the Arizona desert in summer. What president wouldn’t want to pardon a standup guy like that?

Trump’s decision to issue his first pardon Friday evening for Arpaio was the culmination of a five-year political friendship with roots in the “birther” movement to undermine President Barack Obama.

That’s putting it a tad politely. Their friendship’s roots were in the movement to peddle gross lies about Obama in order to do him harm because he’s not white enough for their taste. This toad squatting in the Oval Office got his start in politics telling racist lies and he’s been doing it ever since. The head of state in this country is a lying sadistic racist monster who just spat on the rule of law for the sake of another lying sadistic racist monster. We’re all living in a reeking sewer.

Trump’s pardon, issued without consulting the Justice Department, raised a storm of protest over the weekend, including from some fellow Republicans, and threatens to become a stain on this president’s legacy. His effort to see if the case could be dropped showed a troubling disregard for the traditional wall between the White House and the Justice Department, and taken together with similar actions could undermine respect for the rule of law, experts said.

He’s been disrespecting the law since the day he was inaugurated.

Trump’s spring inquiry about intervening in Arpaio’s case is consistent with his attempt to interfere with the federal investigation of Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser. Trump also made separate appeals in March to Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael S. Rogers to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Trump’s pardon of Arpaio “was his backhand way of doing what he wanted to do at the front end,” said Robert Bauer, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration. “He just wanted to kill the prosecution off. He couldn’t do it the one way, so he ended up doing it the other way. This is just another vivid demonstration of how far removed from an appropriate exercise of the pardon power this was.”

Presidents can set law enforcement priorities, but they are expected to steer clear of involvement in specific cases to avoid the perception of politicizing the impartial administration of justice.

Trump backed off the Arpaio case after being advised it would be inappropriate, but that he even tried is “beyond the pale,” said Chiraag Bains, a former senior counsel in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Bains said he believes Trump “has a sense that the chief executive controls everything in the executive branch, including the exercise of criminal power. And that is just not the way the system is set up.”​

He thinks he’s a dictator, and no one is preventing him from acting like one.