PALM BEACH, FLA. (VINnews) — President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking charges, asserting that Hernández had been “persecuted very unfairly” by the Biden administration.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Speaking at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on narco-trafficking charges, Trump drew parallels between Hernández’s case and his own past legal battles.
“He [Hernández] was persecuted very unfairly by Biden,” Trump said. “He was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump.”
Trump added that the pardon was supported by public sentiment and political alignment in Honduras.
“Obviously, the people liked what I did,” he said. “He’s also a party member of the man who won. That man was persecuted and treated very badly. That’s why I gave him a pardon.”
The comments came in response to a reporter’s question pressing Trump on the apparent inconsistency of calling Maduro a drug trafficker while having pardoned Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court in 2024 of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Trump granted Hernández a full pardon on Dec. 1, 2025, leading to his immediate release. The president has previously described the prosecution as politically motivated.
Honduras does not have any oil.
It’s all about the Benjamins – Maduro will buy a pardon just like Hernandez