For months, President Donald Trump has railed against Latin American narcoterrorists flooding the United States with "lethal poison." He has used the scourge of drug trafficking as a rationale for dozens of military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have left more than 140 people dead. But when it comes to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernndez, who was tried and convicted in the U.S. in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking bribes and allowing traffickers to export more than 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S., Trump has taken a decidedly softer tone.

After railing against narcoterrorists + deporting migrants w/no criminal record, President Trump pardoned the former Honduran president last year - then federal officials lifted his ICE hold & whisked him to the Waldorf Astoria My latest for @propublica.org www.propublica.org/article/trum ...

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-- Keri Blakinger (@keribla.bsky.social) Feb 18, 2026 at 6:00 PM