In a move that’s left both critics and supporters reeling, President Donald Trump has issued a series of high-profile pardons to convicted drug traffickers, even as his administration continues to wage an aggressive campaign against alleged narcotics operations in Latin America. The decisions, made public in late November and early December 2025, have ignited fierce debate over the true motivations behind U.S. drug policy and the political calculus driving recent White House actions.
On May 2025, Trump pardoned Garnett Gilbert Smith—a Baltimore drug kingpin once described by federal authorities as among the largest cocaine and heroin dealers arrested by the DEA in recent history, as reported by The Baltimore Sun. Smith, known by aliases Abdule Jones and Brian Slack, was convicted in 2014 for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison after prosecutors detailed how he ran a multimillion-dollar narcotics empire, moving more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine in less than two years. Smith’s pre-arrest lifestyle was the stuff of urban legend: a fleet of high-end cars, luxury stays at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, and hundreds of thousands spent at Gucci, Cartier, and Louis Vuitton.
Gary Tuggle, then the assistant special agent in charge of the DEA’s Baltimore office, summed up Smith’s stature at sentencing: “one of the largest cocaine and heroin dealers to be arrested by the DEA in recent history.”
But Smith’s pardon was just the beginning. On November 28, 2025, Trump announced his intention to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández—a move that would be formalized just days later. Hernández, extradited to the U.S. in 2022, was convicted in March 2024 on charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy to import cocaine, and conspiracy to use and possess machine guns. He was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison in June 2024. During his Manhattan trial, U.S. prosecutors alleged Hernández had boasted about flooding the United States with drugs, reportedly saying he and his collaborators were “going to shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”
The timing and nature of these pardons have led many to question the sincerity of Trump’s tough-on-crime rhetoric, especially as his administration continues to authorize military action against alleged drug traffickers elsewhere. This fall, the U.S. carried out more than 20 military strikes on boats off Venezuela’s coast, targeting what officials described as narco-terrorist operations. The White House confirmed a particularly controversial strike on September 2, 2025, in the Caribbean, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was accused of ordering the killing of two men clinging to attack wreckage. While Hegseth denied the “kill them all” order, calling media reports “fake news,” the administration blamed a second strike on Commanding Admiral Frank M. Bradley, who insisted all those killed were criminal drug dealers—though no proof was publicly presented.
Ray Hanania, writing in a sharply critical piece, argued that Trump’s approach is riddled with hypocrisy. “Trump claims he is fighting drug trafficking in attacking and killing alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers but hypocritically pardons one of the biggest drug dealers,” Hanania wrote. The piece also noted that while Trump and allies like Senator Tom Cotton tout a crackdown on Venezuela as a way to reduce U.S. drug consumption, the reality is far more complex: “Venezuela is NOT the major source of drugs that come into America. Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia are primary source countries for cocaine... Mexico and its drug cartels are the biggest source of drugs that plague our nation.”
Hanania’s critique extended beyond the Smith and Hernández pardons. On October 23, 2025, Trump also pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had business ties with the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. The article alleged that Binance’s support for the Trump-backed stablecoin and related investments could yield tens of millions in profits for the Trump family, raising questions about conflicts of interest and the true motivations behind the pardon.
Meanwhile, Trump’s actions in Honduras have further complicated the narrative. Just days before the country’s presidential election, Trump publicly endorsed Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the conservative National Party, pledging that the two would “work together to combat drug trafficking.” Yet, two days later, Trump promised to pardon Hernández, a member of Asfura’s party and a convicted drug trafficker. According to The Christian Science Monitor, this incongruity has fueled speculation that political and ideological motivations, rather than a clear security strategy, are at play.
“There is a strategy from the White House to consolidate the right in the western hemisphere,” explained Lester Ramírez, a Honduran political analyst and public policy professor at the Central American Technological University in Tegucigalpa. “It’s about creating a hegemony of the right.”
As of December 8, 2025, with over 57% of votes counted, Asfura held a razor-thin lead in the Honduran presidential race—39.91% to Salvador Nasralla’s 39.89%. Trump’s endorsement and subsequent social media blitz, in which he labeled rivals “communist” or “borderline communist,” appeared to have tipped the scales. “It helped Tito’s image and the National Party’s ability to say, ‘We are close with the U.S., and if you vote for us, the country will be benefited by Trump’s new policies toward Honduras,’” said Ramírez.
Gisselle Wolonzy, co-founder of the Honduran political consulting firm Centuria, noted that drug trafficking allegations touch all major political parties in Honduras. “All three political parties in the presidential race this year have alleged links to drug trafficking,” she said. Even so, some voters remain unfazed by Hernández’s criminal record. “Even if Juan Orlando was like that … it doesn’t matter if he was a drug trafficker,” one supporter told the Monitor. “When people were in trouble, in poverty, he helped them.”
Trump’s justification for the Hernández pardon, according to Eric Olson of the Seattle International Foundation, is rooted in his belief that the trial was a “political operation by the left and not legitimate.” Olson observed, “There is no evidence of that, but that is how [Mr. Trump] sees it, so he concludes that Juan Orlando is not a drug trafficker and is a right-wing person.”
The pattern of pardoning convicted drug traffickers, while simultaneously authorizing lethal force against alleged traffickers abroad, has left many observers questioning the consistency—and the intent—of current U.S. policy. Critics argue that these actions are less about stemming the flow of drugs and more about consolidating political power at home and abroad. Supporters, meanwhile, see Trump’s moves as part of a broader ideological battle against leftist governments and what they call “narcocommunism.”
As the dust settles in Baltimore, Honduras, and beyond, the ripple effects of these pardons—and the contradictions they expose—continue to shape the debate over America’s war on drugs and the future of U.S. influence in the region.
