Outrage erupted across social media Friday after President Donald Trump announced that he intends to grant a “Full and Complete pardon” to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, the convicted drug trafficker serving a 45-year federal sentence for helping move massive amounts of cocaine into the United States.
Hernandez, extradited to the U.S. in 2024 and convicted in New York, was found guilty of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine following years of reporting that he used Honduras’ government, military and police to protect cocaine shipments headed to the U.S.
The backlash to Trump’s new pardon plan was swift.
Conservative critics of Trump blasted the move as proof that the president remains, as the account @RepublicansAgainstTrump put it, “The most lawless president in history.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) reminded his followers of the scale of Hernandez’s crimes.
“He is responsible for the deaths of countless American citizens, and will now be pardoned by Donald Trump,” Castro wrote Friday on X, adding: “Don’t tell me Donald Trump is killing people in boats in the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking.”
Democratic strategist Chris D. Jackson told his X followers: “This man is out of control. If nothing else, his behavior alone will give Democrats a majority next year.”
“He was literally convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking — 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S,” wrote political commentator hot Ed Krassenstein. “How does this make any sense?”
Progressive International co-general coordinator David Adler called the moment “an emergency” in a social media post and questioned: “Where’s the outrage in Washington?”
Thomas Van Linge, a freelance journalist, wrote that the move was an “absolutely unacceptable decision,” while noting that it came “on the eve of crucial elections in Honduras.”
Journalist Yashar Ali offered a lengthy reminder of Hernandez’s record as president, writing that he “took a country that already had deep narco-state characteristics and further centralized and institutionalized a narco-state model.”
He added: “Federal prosecutors showed that he took millions in bribes from cocaine traffickers — including money linked to El Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel — and used the power of his office to protect traffickers and manipulate police and military operations.”
Ali also noted that Hernandez’s brother, Tony Hernandez, is serving a life sentence in the U.S. for running what authorities described as a violent, state-sponsored drug- trafficking ring.
Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted by a jury of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
The Justice Department estimated that this represents 4.5 billion doses of cocaine and that he was “at the center of one of the largest and most violent… pic.twitter.com/U3kIjdfUZL
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) November 28, 2025
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