Nothing says 'tough on drugs' like Trump pardoning a trafficker
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 21, 2022.
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he plans to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of conspiring to traffic drugs within the United States alongside a notorious drug cartel. The pro-crime action undermines Trump’s claims that he is fighting drug trafficking through an ongoing bombing campaign in South America.
Trump announced the planned action in a post to his Truth Social account and simultaneously endorsed Nasry “Tito” Asfura in Honduras’ election. Asfura is in the same National Party as Hernández.
The announcement comes as Trump has ordered the bombing of multiple boats for alleged drug trafficking in the Atlantic and Caribbean. The Washington Post reported that in one strike, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the military to “kill everybody” on board a boat. The order has raised concerns that the Trump administration has been engaged in war crimes under the guise of purportedly stopping drug trafficking.