Trump Shredded Over Bombshell Arrest — One Month After Pardoning Drug-Trafficking Ex-Prez

Critics shredded President Donald Trump over the strike and capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife — just one month after he pardoned a former president who was convicted of drug trafficking.

News broke after midnight Friday that the United States struck Venezuela’s capital of Caracas early Saturday morning, and at 4:21 AM, Trump announced on Truth Social that Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured and flown to the United States.

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote.

The move comes barely a month after the president pardoned former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced for drug trafficking. The president has claimed that Hernandez’s imprisonment was the result of a political prosecution by President Joe Biden’s administration. But the lead investigator on the case that resulted in the conviction, Emil Bove, went on to become Trump’s personal lawyer and then a Trump judicial appointee.

That pardon was heavily criticized at the time, and the operation against Maduro prompted renewed attacks of hypocrisy from Trump critics — including former Trump White House official Miles Taylor, who wrote on X/Twitter:

December: Trump gives sweetheart pardon to a drug-kingpin president.

January: Trump bombs a country to arrest a drug-kingpin president.

If you think this is about the “war on drugs,” you’re fooling yourself.

Democratic strategist and influencer Adam Parkhomenko put a finer point on it in a series of posts:

If Nicolás Maduro is convicted and sentenced by the U.S. government for running drug trafficking networks, would Trump then pardon him the same way he just pardoned the former Honduran president who was also convicted and sentenced in the United States?

I think the bigger question is this: why did Trump protect and pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, a convicted drug trafficker, while turning Maduro into a political trophy? And the answer probably has a lot less to do with justice and a lot more to do with who was useful to Donald Trump at the time.

Independent journalist Jim Acosta noted “Almost one month ago to the day, Trump pardoned a drug trafficking president from Latin America.”

A blizzard of posts from Trump critics, resistance figures, and journalists included:

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