Donald Trump announced on Friday that he may feel compelled to give boxing great a posthumous pardon, because it seems like “pardon” may be his favorite word these days.

In 1967, Ali was convicted of refusing to be sent to Vietnam to serve in the US military despite having been drafted. While he applied to be listed as a conscientious objector, his classification was rejected.

On his potential decision, Trump said, “He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now.” He also indicated that he may have some consistency with future pardons regarding cases such as Ali’s for other “folks that have some sentences that aren’t fair.”

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However, the late Ali’s attorney, Ron Tweel, stated that this notion is entirely unnecessary, as the conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1971 on that grounds that the Department of Justice had failed to fully explain that Ali’s reasoning for objecting to the draft was not based on his Muslim beliefs. In a statement, Tweel said, “We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary. There is no conviction from which a pardon is needed.”

As expected, there has been a great deal of brushback from other public figures, including Reverend Al Sharpton. Sharpton claims that Trump’s actions are “nothing more than grandstanding,” and that his past “anti-Muslim and Islamophobic policies and rhetoric” were objectively against Ali’s religious views. Sharpton pointed out Trump’s hypocrisy, saying, “You can’t stand up for Islam while simultaneously denigrating it.”

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While the practical objective of pardons is to overturn the sentence of an individual who is currently convicted of a crime, there is nothing to be gained from a posthumous pardon other than what could be deemed a symbolic victory. Interestingly enough, Trump also granted a posthumous pardon to another late boxer, Jack Johnson, and has expressed musings of pardoning Martha Stewart for her 2004 insider-trading conviction despite the fact that she finished serving her sentence years ago.

However, Trump has actually used his pardoning ability for real as well, having commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving a life-sentence on non-violent drug charges. This came at the behest of Kim Kardashian, no less. Trump said, “The power to pardon is a beautiful thing. I want to do people who are unfairly treated like Alice.”

While it remains to be seen as to whether or not Trump will actually follow through with the Ali pardon, one can’t help but wonder if this is simply a publicity stunt in an attempt by the president to make himself seem more progressive.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.

Trump posthumously pardons boxer jack johnson

Trump pardoned Johnson, who was African-American, for violating the 1913 Mann Act by carrying a white woman across state lines, during a time when interracial relationships of any kind, even consensual ones, were virtually illegal. Last month, Trump said he was weighing a pardon for Johnson after receiving a phone call from actor Sylvester Stallone, the writer and star of the Rocky film franchise. On Thursday, Trump was surrounded at the White House by several celebrities including Stallone and both former and current boxers like Lennox Lewis. 

In 1908, at age 30, Johnson became the first black man to win the world heavyweight title after defeating Canadian boxer Tommy Burns via TKO in the 14th round.

Johnson died at the age of 68 in a car accident in 1946, the year Trump was born. He was repeatedly denied the opportunity to fight several white boxers for major championships due to his race. He was born in 1878 in Galveston, Texas to former slaves.

Jim Jeffries — a late famous white boxer — came out of retirement to fight Johnson in 1910. Johnson won the match via a 15th-round TKO, and major riots across the country began soon afterwards.

In his announcement of the pardon, Trump called Johnson “a truly great fighter” and noted how the boxer had served 10 months in prison “for what many view as a racially-motivated injustice.”

Johnson’s conviction for violating the Mann Act was re-examined decades later, and experts used it as an example of a case that ended terribly unjustly due to a deeply flawed and racially discriminatory American justice system.

Since taking office, Trump has issued three other pardons: former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, Navy submariner Kristian Mark Saucier, and former George W. Bush Administration official Scooter Libby. 

Arpaio — who is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican this year — is known for being an immigration hardliner who detained several immigrants in his Arizona country and even abused many of these immigrants by illegally keeping them in camps with harsh living conditions.

Saucier was convicted for taking unauthorized photos in the classified section of a submarine. Libby — former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff — was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in 2007 for his involvement in revealing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. 

President Barack Obama has officially pardoned San Francisco Giants legend and Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey for a 1995 charge of tax evasion.

Obama Pardons Hall Of Fame Former Giants 1B Willie McCovey

McCovey, who turned 79 last week, is one of 273 individuals Obama is giving a second chance in one of his final actions as president before Donald Trump is inaugurated on Friday.

McCovey earned $70,000 from autographs and memorabilia shows from 1988-1990, though he knowingly failed to report this income to the federal government. He served no jail time, but was fined $5,000 and sentenced to two years of probation.

The former Giants great expressed his gratitude to President Obama for the pardon, which was one of 64 issued on Tuesday.

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Obama not only for this kind gesture on my behalf, but also for his tireless service to all Americans,” McCovey said in a statement released through the Giants. “He will be deeply missed and I wish him all the best in the future.”

McCovey spent 19 years with the Giants. He hit 469 of his 521 career home runs with them, and the cove outside of AT&T Park bears his name. He retired in 2980, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986. His 521 homers tied him for eight all-time with Ted Williams at the time. His 18 Grand Slams remain a National League record.

Dodgers star Duke Snider also admitted to failing to report sports-related income in 1995, although he was not granted a posthumous pardon by President Obama (Snider died in 2011).

McCovey, an Alabama native, still works with the Giants as a senior adviser and goodwill ambassador.

On Tuesday, Obama also commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the US Army whistleblower who has been imprisoned for six years for leaking state secrets. Manning was originally sentenced to 35 years, and thus would have been released in 2045.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – OCTOBER 02: Matt Duffy #5 of the San Francisco Giants, this year’s recepient of the Willie Mac Award, stands with the former Giants great Willie McCovey prior to the game against the Colorado Rockies at AT&T Park on October 2, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)