Joe Arpaio says he can read Trump's mind, and vice versa


In this life, if you're lucky enough, you find someone who just gets you, and for disgraced former sheriff turned Arizona Republican Senate candidate Joe Arpaio, that someone is President Trump.
"I can read his mind without even talking to him," Arpaio told The Washington Post's Michael Scherer. "I think he may be reading mine. Is there something that goes through the airwaves? Mental telepathy?" The spooky similarities don't stop there — they share a birthday (June 14) and Arpaio's ringtone, Frank Sinatra's "My Way," is the same song Trump chose for his first dance with first lady Melania Trump at his inauguration.
Arpaio, 85, and Trump became close after Arpaio appeared at a Trump rally in July 2015. He's called Trump — who pardoned Arpaio after he was convicted of criminal contempt of court – his "hero," and said he's running for Senate because the president "needs help." If the whole becoming a senator thing doesn't work out, Arpaio told the Post he thinks Trump should make him press secretary. "That would be a great combination, what a great combination," he said. "I'll have all those reporters eating out of my hand, you know that."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Arpaio was proud of how he cracked down on illegal immigration, and said he thinks people from Florida and Chicago should move to Arizona because it won't be "flooded here like L.A. and other places with minorities." While at a Subway with Scherer, Arpaio noted that his sandwich was being made by three white employees, and later in the car, he declared that it used to be that when you'd go into certain establishments, "about 99 percent" of employees were undocumented, but thanks to him, "you can go into Subway and these places and see young college kids working for the tuition, you know, the American kids." When asked, Arpaio admitted that it's possible those employees could have been undocumented Europeans. Read the entire jaw-dropping interview at The Washington Post.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warming
Under the Radar Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase
-
September 14 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to Trump
Speed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raids
Speed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own list
speed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battle
Speed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants