If the president believes the U.S. is at war with drug traffickers, why does he want to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández?
Trump to add notorious Honduran drug trafficker to his list of scandalous pardons share.google/3055wBRsfyvV...
— (@vinnyfaye.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T17:49:44.528Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-to-add-notorious-honduran-drug-trafficker-to-his-list-of-scandalous-pardons
For those unfamiliar with Hernández, this might not have seemed especially notable, but consider this striking summary published by The New York Times:
He once boasted that he would ‘stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.’ He accepted a $1 million bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras. A man was killed in prison to protect him. At the federal trial of Juan Orlando Hernández in New York, testimony and evidence showed how the former president maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade. He orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions for cartels while keeping Honduras one of Central America’s poorest, most violent and most corrupt countries.
Hernández was convicted last year in a sweeping drug-trafficking case and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Trump, however, is undoing all of that — to the great surprise of both Hondurans and U.S. officials who’d invested enormous resources in building a successful case against the former leader.
If the Republican follows through on his announcement, the result will reinforce a ridiculous dynamic, even by 2025 standards: While Trump and his administration claim that the U.S. is engaged in a literal armed conflict against foreign drug traffickers, the American president has vowed to pardon a notorious foreign drug trafficker.
Reporter: You have made so clear how you want to keep drugs out of the US—
Trump: Right
Reporter: Can you explain why you would pardon a notorious drug trafficker?
Trump: If somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-11-30T23:16:55.102Z
...I’m mindful that the American president’s pardon pen has been getting a workout in recent weeks.
We’ve seen Trump extend clemency to, among others, the spouse of a congressional loyalist; those who helped him try to overturn the 2020 election results; some Jan. 6 rioters who apparently needed a re-pardon; nursing home magnate Joseph Schwartz, who paid lobbyists almost $1 million in the hopes of receiving presidential clemency; and the man who helped finance the president’s stablecoin and put money in the Trump family’s pockets.
But just when it seemed the list couldn’t get more outlandish, the Republican incumbent made matters even worse the day after Thanksgiving.
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