‘I don’t kiss men, but I kissed him’: Ex-lawman Joe Arpaio reveals ‘only hero I have’

MILWAUKEE — Joe Arpaio gained national notoriety for his harsh immigration policies during his two decades-plus reign as sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona.

Arpaio’s defiant style made him a natural early ally to Donald Trump during the 2024 Republican presidential nominee’s successful campaign in 2016.

Arpaio, who received a presidential pardon from Trump for contempt of court after losing reelection as sheriff, was feeling vindicated on Monday as Republicans formally chose Trump as their nominee for president.

Hanging out on the concourse at Fiserv Forum, Arpaio told Raw Story that he and Trump “have some kind of connection” in which he can “predict how he’s thinking without even talking to him.”

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Trump and Arpaio share a goal for dramatic — some argue draconian — immigration limits. Arpaio recalled that he introduced Trump at a campaign rally in 2015 when few other political figures embraced the Republican Party’s current standard-bearer.

“So, we fought the battle together on illegal immigration,” Arpaio told Raw Story. “I’ve been fighting that border when I was head of the federal drug enforcement [agency] in Mexico and everywhere else. So, I’ve been in that battle for about 50 years.”

Trump kissed Arpaio on the cheek during a campaign rally in Phoenix last month.

“I don’t kiss men, but I kissed him,” Trump said at the time. “We had a real border with this guy. People said he was too tough. Now, they’re saying, ‘Where is Sheriff Joe? You know, he is 170 years old, but we want him back.’”

Recalling the moment, Arpaio reprised his comments from the rally, expressing his loyalty and gratitude to Trump.

“I said, ‘It took me 88 years to find a hero,’” Arpaio told Raw Story. “NBC asked me around that time: ‘Is [former Sen.] John McCain your hero?’ I said, ‘John McCain is not my hero.’ ‘Well, who is?’ I said, ‘Donald Trump.’ How many people call him a hero — politicians? Very few…. I went further. I said, ‘He’s the only hero I have.’”

Common bond, different trajectories

As Trump’s national political ascent began, Arpaio’s political star faded in Democratic-trending Arizona. Arpaio lost his 2016 reelection to a Democratic incumbent the same year Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton for the presidency.

Legal trouble followed Arpaio’s political freefall the following year as the self-proclaimed “America’s toughest sheriff” became a convicted criminal.

In July 2017, Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt, with District Judge Susan Bolton finding that the former sheriff knowingly violated a federal judge’s order in 2011. The ruling noted that Arpaio’s deputies carried on a practice of detaining immigrants for 18 months simply because they lacked legal status — an action in defiance of a federal judge’s order.

About a month later, Trump, who had called Arpaio “a great American patriot,” issued a pardon.

Arpaio failed in subsequent efforts to return to the political stage. He placed third in a Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2018. He then lost the Republican primary for Maricopa County sheriff in 2020. In 2022, he lost a bid for mayor of the town of Fountain Hills, in the Phoenix suburbs.

But Arpaio, who is now 92, is taking satisfaction that the national conversation on immigration has inexorably turned in his direction.

His ally, Trump, who is set to accept the Republican presidential nomination in Milwaukee on Thursday, is said to be planning a wide-scale roundup of millions of undocumented people in the United States along with a buildup of detention camps to process their removal.

A recent CBS/YouGov poll found that 62 percent of Americans support the plan.

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks with Raw Story at the Republican National Convention. roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms