Trump rages on about needing to stop drug trafficking, and his Department of Defense/War keeps sinking boats and small ships leaving Venezuela, claiming that they’re drug traffickers.

So why did Trump pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who has been serving a 45-year sentence in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking and who accepted millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers connected to the notorious Sinaloa Cartel?

But the pardon of Hernández was scarcely the first pardon of high-profile drug traffickers. Others pardoned include Ross Ulbricht, creator of the dark web marketplace Silk Road a major conduit for anonymous drug trafficking, who had been serving multiple life sentences, and who received a full pardon in January 2025; Larry Hoover, the leader of the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples, who was serving multiple life sentences for crimes linked to his role in a violent, multi-state drug trafficking operation received a grant clemency from Trump in May 2025; Michael Harris (Harry O)the co-founder of Death Row Records, had his sentence for cocaine offenses commuted by Trump in his first term and was fully pardoned in 2025 after endorsing Trump in the 2024 election.

It “might” have something to so with Sunday’s Honduran election, since Trump wrote on Truth Social on administration would be “very supportive” of Nasry “Tito” Asfura’s government if Asfura won. Trump then announced he would be “granting a Full and Complete Pardon” to Hernández. And followed up his words by pardoning him.

But when the ongoing election vote-counting results shifted to favor the centrist candidate, Trump vowed there would be “hell to pay” and immediately claimed “election fraud,” because, of course, any election that doesn’t go the way he wants must be fraudulent.

The situation so far – pardons for convicted drug kingpins and heads of state bought by drug money, but total destruction for boats merely suspected of carrying drugs, and apparently a tight election see-sawing back and forth between the Trump-backed conservative and the moderate centrist candidate while Trump continues efforts to sway the results of the ballot-boxes.

With friends like Victor, Xi, and Vlad
How could Donald be so bad?
Who’s the chump?
You… or Donald Trump?

Over forty years ago, I was a political appointee at the Environmental Protection Agency during the first years of the Reagan Administration, with the position level of deputy assistant administrator for Legislation and Congressional Affairs.

At that time, in a similar fashion to what’s happening in the second Trump Administration, newly appointed cabinet officers – staunch Republicans all – were out to “get control” and “rein in the excesses” of government. And like now, most of them had no idea how the federal government worked or in the worst cases, how it didn’t. Some few of them had worked in state governments, and they thought that the federal government would be similar. Back then, it definitely wasn’t.

Unlike today, at that time, Congress was controlled by the Democrats, and they weren’t in the slightest pleased at the way the Administration was handling environmental matters, and various congressional committees began calling hearings. As the head of Congressional Affairs for EPA at the time, I counted up the hearings, and, as I recall, there were two different hearings every week for a good portion of 1982 – just for EPA-related matters. Virtually all those hearings were civil, yet acrimonious.

I suggested, very politely, to the White House that fighting with Congress over environmental matters was a bad idea and most likely a losing proposition. I was politely told that I had no idea what I was talking about, even though at that time, I’d already spent over ten years as a senior congressional staffer.

In the end, largely because of public opinion and congressional outrage, the EPA Administrator, the Deputy Administrator, and all the Assistant Administrators (the officials in charge of specific programs, such as Water, Air Pollution, Solid and Hazardous Waste, Research and Development, Legal Enforcement, etc.) were removed or effectively required to resign, as was the Secretary of Interior. I got off lightly, in that I was demoted to regulatory review. A year later, I managed to get a job with a Washington, D.C., consulting firm as an environmental and energy regulatory specialist.

The second Trump administration is unlike the first Reagan Administration in two major areas, in that, first, a number of key White House advisors do in fact know exactly how the Executive Branch works (although most of the lower-level MAGA appointees don’t) and, second, Republicans control the Congress. Whether these factors will delay or mute the impact of public outrage, I have no idea, but I do know that, in the past, when Presidents have greatly angered Congress, it often hasn’t gone well with them.

Will this time be different? You tell me.

Ban foreign students by the millions
And pardon criminals with their billions.
Who’s the chump,
You… or Donald Trump?

Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and a retired Navy captain, joined with five other Representatives and Senators, all Democrats, who had served the nation either in the military or the intelligence community in releasing a statement that said military officers had the right to refuse to carry out “illegal orders.”

Trump immediately denounced the six and called their actions “seditious” and supported the idea of hanging all six. Subsequent to that, Secretary of Defense/War Hegseth began action to “court martial” Senator Kelly.

First, none of the six suggested disobeying an existing law. They only expressed an opinion that the Constitution laid out rights and duties and that military officers should not obey orders by the President that were illegal under the Constitution.

Trump and Hegseth are taking the position that any order by the President is, by definition, legal, despite the words of the Constitution that suggest that a President is not omnipotent. In the case of Richard Nixon, the Congress clearly rejected Nixon’s contention that any action by the President was, de facto, legal.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech. In addition, the Constitution clearly states that the opinions of Senators and Representatives in pursuit of their duties are protected speech.

Trump had a temper-tantrum over being told that it was possible that not everything he “orders” may not be legal, and that if he issued illegal orders, senior officers had the right to refuse such orders. Hegseth then followed up with a statement that all members of the military should presume that ALL orders are legal and should be followed and that those who did not agree would be investigated under military law.

When a President declares that opinions and advice contrary to his beliefs and wishes are seditious and treasonous and should result in capital punishment, particularly when those opposing his views are citing the Constitution, he’s not behaving as the President of the United States but as third-world dictator. And, of course, loyal lackey Hegseth immediately followed orders to prosecute Senator Kelly for exercising his rights as a citizen and a Senator.

That should tell Americans something, but will it?