> The executive being able to overrule the judiciary is an absolutely jaw-dropping American institution.
No, its not, pardon and the closely linked power of clemency are common powers in representative democracies, often situated with the chief of state or the head of government (in the US, and other Presidential systems, the President is both), or sometimes the cabinet instead of the head of government in a parliamentary or semi-parliamentary system (in some cases, one or the other is assigned by law to a subordinate bureaucracy rather than being HoS/cabinet discretion, as is the case with pardon but not clemency in Canada.) It is generally more used in the US than other Western states, in part because the US has a much harsher criminal justice system with much longer sentences and much weaker provisions for relief other than executive pardon than other systems, but the power itself is common. [0]
The way it is used under Trump is wildly abnormal (for the US or the other representative democracies), though.
[0] see, e.g., https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/pardon-power-is-co... ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon ; etc.
The president just prior to Trump pardoned his own son for crimes, and pre-emptively pardoned various other family members and political allies for any possible crimes before they could be prosecuted. Again, this is not new, this is ongoing open-air corruption, and Trump's escalation is the result of everyone being OK with it before now.
The son committed a crime and it could be argued it would have been a net benefit for democracy for him to accept the sentence.
It's also true his son was prosecuted politically, because few if any people go to jail for 4473 falsification.
It's also true that this is new and unprecedented.