Trump’s Tough-On-Drugs Claim Undermined by Pardons and Deadly Naval Strikes

President Donald Trump’s recent clemency actions — including the pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted in a major cocaine-trafficking case — have drawn renewed scrutiny and criticism for appearing to contradict his administration’s public posture on drugs.

Nearly 100 Drug-Related Clemencies

An analysis by The Washington Post found that Mr. Trump has pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 100 people convicted of drug-related offenses. Almost 90 of those clemencies occurred during his first term; since returning to office in January he has issued roughly 10 more, including high-profile names such as Hernández and Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road marketplace. He also commuted the sentences of figures like Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover and Baltimore drug figure Garnet Gilbert Smith.

Deadly Maritime Strikes and Questions of Evidence

At the same time, the administration authorized Pentagon operations to fire on small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which officials say targeted 'narco-terrorists.' The Pentagon reports that 23 small vessels have been destroyed and 87 people killed. Critics, journalists and some lawmakers say Pentagon officials have not publicly produced evidence that the boats were carrying illegal drugs or that the people killed were traffickers.

Navy Admiral Frank Bradley told lawmakers the first strike, on Sept. 2, struck a vessel bound for Suriname; media reporting indicates routes through Suriname are often destined for Europe. Admiral Bradley defended the action by arguing drugs on board could have ultimately reached the U.S. That strike killed all 11 people on board, including two survivors of the initial hit who perished after a follow-up attack.

Sources familiar with classified briefings told The New York Times that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth does not have a clear accounting of all identities of those killed. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Daily Beast, in an email, that the Pentagon "stands by" its assessment that intelligence confirmed the individuals were 'narco-terrorists.' The Pentagon has not released detailed public proof backing that assertion.

Clemency Process and Political Rhetoric

Critics say the administration’s tough rhetoric about narco-terrorism is difficult to reconcile with its pattern of clemency for drug offenders. Liz Oyer, who served as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney from April 2022 to March 2025, told The Washington Post that pardoning drug kingpins is "virtually unheard of." The Post reported that Hernández’s and Ulbricht’s pardons bypassed the typical review process carried out by career DOJ officials.

Mr. Trump has characterized Hernández’s prosecution as a "Biden set-up," even though the extradition and prosecution began while Mr. Trump was in office during his first term. Hernández was extradited to the United States in 2022 and was sentenced to 45 years after a conviction finding he abused his office and accepted bribes tied to traffickers moving an estimated 4.5 billion individual doses of cocaine. Testimony in a separate trial included an account from a Honduran accountant who said he counted bribe payments and quoted Hernández boasting about moving drugs past U.S. detection.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the president’s decisions as measures to protect the homeland and to correct what the administration calls a "weaponized Justice Department" under President Joe Biden. The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment; Pentagon officials have also declined to publish the detailed evidence critics request.

Bottom line: The juxtaposition of broad clemency for dozens of drug-related offenders and aggressive, lethal maritime operations raises questions about policy coherence, transparency, and accountability in the administration’s approach to combating international drug trafficking.