Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, a convicted criminal and Donald Trump devotee who opened a sweltering outdoor “Tent City Jail” and gained notoriety for dressing inmates in pink underwear, is known for imposing controversial punishments.

Soon, the anti-immigration crusader could be known for a presidential controversy.

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But there’s a big distinction between that kind of pardon and the kind that Stanford University criminology professor Robert Weisberg believes Trump will grant.

Ford made his decision for “political reasons,” he says; Trump appears to be pursuing “political gain.”

“Ford felt the body politic as a whole would be healthier if it weren’t embroiled in a legal battle over Nixon,” Weisberg says, noting that the reasoning was framed as being in the best interests of the country.

Arpaio is a “hero of the alt-right” voter base that supports Trump, Weisberg says, but the former sheriff’s crime doesn’t match the gravity of a national burden that must be exorcised. Instead, Weisberg says, “Trump is almost announcing that he’s doing this simply for political grandstanding.”

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That Trump would intervene in pardoning what Weisberg calls a relatively “trivial” misdemeanour is “extremely unusual,” he said, because pardons typically target cases involving years-long sentences.

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“So Trump would be engaging in an in-your-face to the judicial system,” Weisberg said.