Trevor Noah addressed Donald Trump’s controversial pardon of Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who once referred to his notorious Tent City prison as a concentration camp and was held in contempt of court in a case linked to racial profiling.

“Let’s move on from Hurricane Harvey to the storm that is battering the entire country: Donald Trump,” Trevor Noah began during The Daily Show. “He’s been president for seven months and, like a teenage boy with a locked bedroom door, he’s been exploring his new powers. And this weekend, Trump confirmed that he could get someone off all by himself.”

Noah discussed Trump’s decision to pardon Arpaio on Friday night, in a move that had been speculated on for weeks. Members of the GOP, like speaker of the house Paul Ryan and senator John McCain, spoke out against the president’s use of the pardon power.

“To understand why both Democrats and many Republicans have condemned this pardon, you need to understand the man who Trump gave the pardon to,” Noah explained. “Ladies and gentleman, meet Joe Arpaio. He was elected sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona in 1993 and quickly developed a reputation as an intense opponent of illegal immigration. Which you can kind of get. He’s in law enforcement, he’s cracking down on something illegal. It’s like how Smokey the Bear brutally mauls anyone who starts a forrest fire.”

“But as much as Sheriff Arpaio presented himself as anti-illegal immigrants, it turns out he was really just anti- being a decent human being,” the host continued, summarizing the dreadful treatment of inmates at Arpaio’s prisons, particularly in Tent City, where their shoes often melted as they were made to sleep outside in triple-digit temperatures, as well as the $142m in legal fees, settlements, and compliance costs Arpaio cost taxpayers because of wrongful deaths and civil rights infractions.

“Yes, the man Trump pardoned was one of the worst sheriffs in America,” Noah said. “Worse than Sheriff Clarke, worse than Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane, worse than the sheriff Bob Marley shot in his song. Think about all the other things that that money could have bought: schools or roads, or they could’ve just paid Conor McGregor and Floyd Maywetaher to punch Arpaio in the face.”

Noah continued: “And here’s what may surprise you. All that shit that Arpaio did, that’s not why he needed a pardon. Those were just his extracurriculars. It turns out his full-time job is racism.”

Noah then detailed Arpaio’s July conviction for contempt of court due to his violation of a federal court order to stop profiling Latinos in his district.

“Now, contempt of court may not seem like a big deal,” Noah said. “But this wasn’t some night-in-jail offense. This was a federal court ruling that Sheriff Arpaio was routinely violating Americans’ constitutional rights and ordered him to stop immediately.”

“And here’s why Trump’s pardon is an even bigger deal than merely condoning Arpaio’s illegal actions. Remember how the three branches of government are supposed to be equal? Well, convicting someone of contempt is the one and only way the judicial branch can put muscle behind its decisions. So when the president of the United States steps in and pardons someone’s contempt conviction, he’s essentially rendering the courts powerless.”



“For a guy who’s not racist, Donald Trump sure has a lot of racist friends,” Noah concluded.