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MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: Neighborhood bully

When do drug traffickers get the death sentence -- and when do they get presidential pardons?

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The Ink
Dec 02, 2025
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In today’s letter: Does pardoning a major trafficker fit into Donald Trump’s version of the war on drugs — or his idea of what the world should look like?

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BIGGER PICTURE: The Donroe Doctrine

A month ago, we talked about why Donald Trump betrayed MAGA for Argentina: In the depths of the U.S. government shutdown, he bailed out Javier Milei to the tune of $40 billion and — with apparent success — put a thumb on the scales of the country’s elections.

But what was Trump doing last week, amidst the furor over the U.S.’s extrajudicial killings of alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers, pardoning former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was extradited to the United States, convicted last year in federal court on drug trafficking and conspiracy charges, and sentenced to 45 years in prison?

There is, strangely enough, some logic to it, however convoluted.

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