President Trump’s recent moves in Central and South America expose a simple truth: America will not be led by a faint-hearted foreign policy that treats friends and enemies the same. He granted a full pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández days before a tight Honduran election, while simultaneously ordering kinetic strikes and a navy buildup to shut down narco-trafficking linked to Venezuela. That sharp contrast has enraged the usual suspects in the American commentariat, but ordinary citizens who put safety first see a president finally willing to defend our borders and interests.
Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted in a Manhattan federal court in March 2024 and sentenced to 45 years after prosecutors documented how cocaine flowed through Honduras under his watch. The Department of Justice laid out a decades-long conspiracy and tied Hernández to protection rackets that enabled hundreds of tons of U.S.-bound cocaine, a narrative the Biden DOJ and Manhattan prosecutors argued with hard evidence. Conservatives who believe in due process can still be skeptical about political timing and prosecutorial zeal, especially when the same system treats geopolitical rivals so differently.
Yet President Trump used his constitutional clemency power to free Hernández, calling the prosecution politically motivated and acting as a check against an overly activist Justice Department. For many on the right, this was Trump restoring balance after years of weaponized prosecutions that targeted allies while ignoring enemies of the Republic. Critics howl about law and order; patriots counter that law is meaningless if selectively enforced to advance partisan vengeance.
At the same time, Mr. Trump has taken an unmistakably hard line against Nicolás Maduro, accusing Venezuela’s regime of enabling narco-trafficking and greenlighting forceful interdictions at sea. The administration’s strikes on vessels allegedly linked to cartels and stepped-up military posture around Venezuela signal a president who understands that words without action leave Americans exposed to fentanyl and crime. If the intelligence is sound, bluffing and diplomatic hand-wringing won’t stop drugs from killing our kids; decisive action will.
There are legitimate questions about intelligence and the rules of engagement that any conservative should want answered, but those concerns do not translate into automatic support for soft-handed policies that let narco-regimes operate with impunity. Senators and commentators who condemn the strikes while applauding endless prosecutions at home reveal a double standard that weakens trust in institutions. The right’s priority is protecting American lives and sovereignty, and sometimes that requires uncomfortable but effective measures.
Democrats and media elites portray the pardon and the military pressure as inconsistent and self-serving, but from a realist perspective the moves are complementary: defend American streets from narco-traffickers and push back against regimes who enable them, while correcting politicized prosecutions when necessary. If the DOJ becomes a tool of partisan retribution, it loses legitimacy; if the White House refuses to use all instruments of power against hostile narco-states, Americans pay the price in ruined lives. Conservatives who cherish the rule of law should demand both accountability and the wise exercise of executive power.
The politics are raw in Honduras, where Trump’s endorsement and the pardon landed at a volatile moment and may have shifted electoral dynamics, but American national security must come before convenience for liberal narratives. Washington’s friends in the region deserve partners who weigh stability, migration control, and anti-drug operations together — not bureaucrats who prefer performative virtue signaling. Trump’s thumb in Latin American affairs is blunt, patriotic, and designed to secure the homeland first.
Patriotic Americans should judge these actions by results: fewer drugs, stronger borders, and regional partners who know the U.S. will defend its people. That means supporting a president who uses every lawful tool to blunt narco-networks and who will not be cowed by a partisan class that values its narratives over our safety. In a dangerous world, courage and clarity beat equivocation — and hardworking Americans deserve leaders who act like it.
