Pardon me Trump, but your ruse is showing.

Donald Trump has pardoned several individuals involved in drug trafficking cases both during and after his first term as President. Most notably, in late 2025, during his second term, he pardoned several high-profile drug offenders, including a former foreign president convicted of major narco-trafficking crimes.
Key pardons related to drug trafficking include:
Juan Orlando Hernández On December 1, 2025, Trump pardoned the former President of Honduras, who had been convicted in March 2024 of conspiring to import over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Hernández was released from prison the next day. Trump claimed the case was a "Biden administration setup" and that Hernández was treated unfairly.
Ross Ulbricht On January 21, 2025, in his second term, Trump issued a pardon to Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace "Silk Road," which was a major online conduit for anonymous drug trafficking. Ulbricht was serving a double life sentence without parole.
Garnett Gilbert Smith In May 2025, Trump pardoned Smith, a Baltimore drug kingpin described by federal authorities as one of the largest cocaine and heroin dealers the DEA had ever arrested. Smith had been convicted in 2014 for running a multimillion-dollar narcotics empire.
Larry Hoover Trump commuted the federal sentence of Larry Hoover, the founder of the Gangster Disciples street gang which controlled a vast drug trade in Chicago, in May 2025.
Michael R. "Harry-O" Harris One of the co-founders of Death Row Records, Harris was granted clemency by Trump on January 20, 2021, the final day of his first term in office, for a 1980s conviction related to running a national drug operation. He received a full pardon in May 2025.
Trump has faced significant bipartisan criticism for these pardons, as they contrast sharply with his tough "anti-drug" rhetoric and crackdowns on drug cartels and operations in the Caribbean and Venezuela.