Trump Pardons His Honduran Strongman Buddy Convicted of Cocaine Trafficking as Hegseth Executes Venezuelans Suspected of Drug Smuggling: An Executive Watch Roundup
Our early-December selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
The Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism (ISMA), along with its flagship publication, The UnPopulist, launched Executive Watch earlier this year. This project, designed to track presidential abuses of power as they are happening, has been meticulously documenting the illicit actions emanating from the White House.
Below is our biweekly selection of new entries posted in Executive Watch. You should bookmark this page that contains a chronological scroll of the abuses and this post that sorts and lists them under our 5 P categories:
After reading this roundup, tell us in the comments: Which of these abuses is the most troubling, and why?
Nov. 28, 2025
Pete Hegseth’s Illegal ‘Kill Everyone’ Order in the Caribbean Strikes Led to the Cold-Blooded Execution of Survivors
Category: Policy Illegality
The Trump administration has been acting as if it expects never to experience any consequences, ever, for its abuses of executive power. Yet it seems to be getting a little nervous about its policy of air strikes against supposed smuggling boats in the Caribbean, especially now that the evidence indicates that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave an obviously illegal order.
The Washington Post got the scoop with a key detail:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.
The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack—the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere—ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water. …
The alleged traffickers pose no imminent threat of attack against the United States and are not, as the Trump administration has tried to argue, in an “armed conflict” with the US, these officials and experts say. Because there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men in the boats “amounts to murder,” said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the US counterterrorism campaign.
Even if the US were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill all the boat’s occupants if they were no longer able to fight “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,” said Huntley, now director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law.
A “no quarter” order is an actual technical term for an order to kill people who pose no threat. This is so obviously and seriously illegal—U-boat officers were literally sentenced to death at Nuremberg for doing this in World War II—that the administration is starting to panic.
Pete Hegseth is now nobly trying to shift the blame to the admiral who gave the direct order—but he can’t run, because everyone in the chain of command is on the hook for this, and not just under American law but under international law, where presidential pardons offer no protection.
Nov. 28, 2025
Trump Pardons Honduras’ Strongman President Convicted of Running a Cocaine Ring from His Office
Category: Political Corruption
Donald Trump has justified the murder of sailors on random boats in the Caribbean as part of a supposed war on drug traffickers. Then he gave the lie to this justification by pardoning a former Honduran president who was convicted of running a massive cocaine smuggling operation out of his office.
CNN reports:
President Donald Trump said Friday he intends to grant a “full and complete pardon” to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a move that would erase a major US drug-trafficking conviction for a onetime US ally who is currently serving a 45-year federal prison sentence. …
Prosecutors had accused Hernández of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.
During his years in office, the Justice Department said, Hernández “protected and enriched the drug traffickers in his inner circle.” Prosecutors cited his use of executive power to support extraditions to the US of certain drug traffickers “who threatened his grip on power,” while “promising drug traffickers who paid him and followed his instructions that they would remain in Honduras.”
See a long description of the crime ring Hernández ran with his brother, which also indicates why Trump is inclined to pardon him: He governed as a right-wing strongman and specifically made a point of cooperating with Trump on anti-immigration policies.
More broadly, this case is consistent with the overall pattern of Trump pardons. He considers impunity from the law to be the natural prerogative of the rich and powerful.
Nov. 28, 2025
Trump Is Making Deals With Russia to Ensure That His Family and Cronies Profit Big After the Ukraine War Ends
Category: Personal Grift
The president is supposed to set U.S. foreign policy according to our national interests. But Donald Trump has been setting it according to his own personal financial interests, selling out Ukraine in exchange for being set up as a pet oligarch by Vladimir Putin.
The Wall Street Journal has a big exposé, but it’s behind a paywall, so see a summary at The Daily Beast:
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are negotiating with Russian officials to ensure U.S. businesses—and Trump’s friends—are in position to make a killing once the war ends, according to an exhaustive Wall Street Journal report published Friday. …
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, has been dangling lucrative Russia-U.S. ventures, such as exploiting Arctic mineral resources and teaming up with SpaceX on a joint mission to Mars.
Money from such projects would flow to Trump’s friends and megadonors. Gentry Beach, founder of investment firm America First Global , a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. and Donald Trump campaign donor, is in talks to acquire a stake in a Russian Arctic gas project if it is released from sanctions, according to The Journal.
Trump megadonor Stephen P. Lynch has been working with Trump Jr. to purchase the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which provides vital gas to Europe from Russia.
By coordinating with the U.S. on profitable business ventures, Russia believes it could become an economic powerhouse in Europe while driving a wedge between the United States and its traditional European allies.
For a long time, the central idea of Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy has been the assumption that all Western politicians are corrupt and can be bought. With the Trump administration, he is finding a lot of validation for that idea.
Nov. 23, 2025
A White-Collar Criminal Pays a Duo With Connections to Trump to Successfully Obtain a Presidential Pardon
Category: Political Corruption
One of the things we will have to untangle in future congressional hearings or investigations by a future Department of Justice is the exact mechanism by which pardons are being granted under Donald Trump. There is already strong prima facie evidence that a whole industry has grown up to buy and sell Trump pardons.
Consider a case reported in the Washington Post:
In April, Alina Habba, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, extolled her office’s role in the sentencing of a former nursing home magnate to three years in prison for defrauding the government of $38 million. The man, Joseph Schwartz, was alleged to have overseen a “collapsed nursing home empire” and “willfully” failed to pay employment taxes, Habba’s announcement said.
Around that time, Schwartz paid $960,000 to two lobbyists “seeking a federal pardon,” according to their lobbying filing. …
The lobbyists, right-wing provocateurs Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, noted on the disclosure form that they had been convicted of telecommunications fraud in Ohio in connection with a robocall scheme designed to deter the turnout of minority voters. They also face sentencing next month in Michigan on a similar robocall case and have been subject to millions of dollars in fines in a related case brought by the Federal Communications Commission, according to state and federal authorities. For years, the pair have injected themselves into politics, such as alleging without evidence in 2018 that there were sexual assault claims against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
It is not clear what Burkman and Wohl did for Schwartz. But on Nov. 14, seven months after Habba celebrated Schwartz’s conviction, Trump granted Schwartz a “full and unconditional” pardon. …
The lobbying disclosure form says Burkman and Wohl contacted Congress, the White House, and the Justice Department on Schwartz’s behalf but does not provide further details.
A newspaper report is only the beginning of the investigation. Perhaps the money went merely to buy connections rather than an outright bribe. But that, too, is normal for an authoritarian regime. Notorious bottom-feeders like Burkman and Wohl can prosper from their connections to the regime, as a reward for their political loyalty.
Nov. 21, 2025
Trump Crony Is Robbing the Kennedy Center to Pay Other Cronies, Senate Democrats Accuse
Category: Personal Grift
You know the president is attempting to politicize civil society when you have to read Playbill and OperaWire to keep up with the latest political news. Trump fired the entire board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and replaced them with his cronies, and the new management is now accused of rampant corruption.
Here is Playbill’s overview:
A series of contracts and receipts obtained by the [Senate Environment and Public Works Committee] showed the Kennedy Center providing venue rentals to allies at a deep discount; spending almost $40,000 on luxury hotel rooms, lavish meals, and entertainment for friends over a period of three months; and providing work contracts to friends that were seemingly unrelated to Kennedy Center business….
The EPW documents also showed deeply discounted venue rentals to conservative organizations, including a $19,820 discount for a NewsNation town hall and a $21,982.60 discount to the American Conservative Union Foundation—the latter contract included a note of “waived costs from OOP” (the Office of the President).
In his letter, Whitehouse also detailed that Grenell provided a former colleague a $15,000-per-month contract to perform “policy research and speechwriting,” noting it’s “unclear how this work relates to your role at the Kennedy Center, since the contract is devoid of any detail, nor have you delivered any substantive speeches or remarks that would justify these payments.” The Center also entered into a $10,833.33 per month contract with Jeff Halperin, husband of conservative pundit Kari Lake, for “social media capture/editing” services.
One of the hallmarks of authoritarianism is that the takeover of institutions serves the purpose of exerting control, in this case artistic control—but at the same time, everything is also an opportunity for corruption, which also feeds the regime and its hangers-on.
Nov. 20, 2025
Trump Threatens to Execute Members of Congress for Reminding Soldiers that Obeying Illegal Military Commands Is Illegal
Category: Presidential Retribution
Sometimes Donald Trump’s abuses of his executive power are subtle, and sometimes they are flagrantly, blazingly obvious. Trump is now threatening to execute members of Congress for “sedition,” simply for restating the established legal principle that members of the U.S. military are required to disobey illegal orders.
NBC News has the better headline, but this The New York Times report is more succinct:
President Trump accused a group of Democratic lawmakers of sedition in an outburst on social media Thursday morning and said their behavior was “punishable by death.”
Their crime? Recording a video that reminded members of the military that they are not supposed to obey illegal orders. …
The Democratic lawmakers’ message did not focus on a specific order or scenario, but Trump administration officials have said the lawmakers were encouraging the military to rebel against its commander in chief. As a standard part of their training, members of the military are told that they should refuse to carry out illegal orders. …
And Ms. Slotkin told The New York Times earlier this week that she’d been hearing from active-duty troops concerned about the legality of strikes targeted people accused of drug-smuggling by the Trump administration. …
The six Democrats who produced the video put out a joint statement which read, in part: “What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law. Our service members should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders. It is not only the right thing to do, but also our duty.
One of the consistent policies of Donald Trump’s presidency is that he is in favor of war crimes. He has granted pardons for them, he has ordered them, and now is threatening members of Congress in an attempt to suppress any suggestion that the U.S. military is not required to commit war crimes when he asks them to.
Nov. 18, 2025
Trump Is Openly Accepting Bribes from Companies and Billionaires for his Ballroom
Category: Political Corruption
The most amazing part of the Trump era is how many people will just openly admit to committing crimes because they are assured of official tolerance and immunity from prosecution. In this case, an executive with a crypto company admits that of course they funded Trump’s White House ballroom as a quid pro quo for better regulatory treatment.
Axios has the story, because she said it at their event:
Coinbase donated to President Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom project as an appeal to the administration, Emilie Choi, the cryptocurrency exchange’s president and COO, said at Axios’ BFD event on Tuesday.
Major companies including Google, Amazon, Palantir Technologies donated to the project, which critics have argued amounts to a pay-for-play relationship with the federal government. Axios’ Dan Primack asked Choi whether the donation was intended “to keep good relations with the White House,” to which she replied “sure.” …
Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law professor, said it fosters “a favorable atmosphere of gratitude and reciprocity.” When “there’s personal solicitation and personal response,” he added, “that just increases the likelihood that there’ll be the give and take.”
That one-word response, “sure,” may not seem like much, but it is the kind of admission of intent that might show up at a future trial. But executives from crypto firms have gotten used to playing fast and loose with the law. More established businesses that are used to being under a legal microscope are being more cautious.
Hence, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon explains why his firm didn’t give money for the ballroom:
since we do a lot of contracts with governments here and around the world, we have to be very careful about how anything is perceived. And also how the next DOJ is going to deal with it. So we’re quite conscious of risks we bear by doing anything that looks like buying favors.
The cyclone of corruption around the Trump White House might be considerably lessened if more people start thinking that there will be a “next DOJ” that can look back and examine what they’re doing now.
Nov. 17, 2025
FCC Chair Reups His Boss’ Post Demanding that NBC Fire Seth Myers
Category: Presidential Retribution
Donald Trump’s attempt to ban Jimmy Kimmel from television may have backfired, but he hasn’t given up on the idea that he can silence his critics. So, naturally, he is trying again, this time ordering his toady, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, to go after NBC’s late-night comedy host Seth Myers.
Here is a report from NPR:
Trump seems to have had enough with Meyers, as he had with late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
“NBC’s Seth Meyers is suffering from an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS),” the president posted on Truth Social on Nov. 15. “He was viewed last night in an uncontrollable rage, likely due to the fact that his “show” is a Ratings DISASTER. Aside from everything else, Meyers has no talent, and NBC should fire him, IMMEDIATELY!”
Less than an hour later Trump’s tirade was reposted on X by Brendan Carr, chairperson of the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that regulates radio, TV, wire, satellite and cable across the country. …
The FCC also oversees major corporate media mergers like the one it recently approved between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. … NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers is a property of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast, one of the corporations expected to bid on Warner Bros. Discovery, a sale that will likely face scrutiny from the Trump Administration.
Freedom of speech, and particularly freedom to criticize this president, will not be safe until the power of the FCC is reined in—or at least until it is under the control of a chairman who is truly independent of Trump and dedicated to freedom of speech.
Nov. 14, 2025
The Swiss Bribe Trump With Gold Bars and Watches to Buy a Reprieve from His Tariffs
Category: Personal Grift
Like a king in his palace, Donald Trump summons people to the White House to accept lavish gifts and flattery. The government of Switzerland had figured out how to play the game, and it’s not exactly subtle that the key to Trump’s heart is gold.
Axios reports:
To cut tariffs President Trump imposed on their country, the Swiss sent a delegation of industry tycoons bearing gifts—a special Rolex desktop clock, a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar, and loads of flattery.
Trump loves such pampering, and the word’s out among nations and companies seeking his favor. Tributes fit for a king—especially gold—catch his eyes and his heart.
The Swiss bar, given to Trump during the delegation’s visit on Nov. 4, was stamped with 45 and 47 in homage to his presidential terms. It’s worth a little more than $130,000. Trump accepted the gifts on behalf of his presidential library, making them legal, White House officials say.
Apple set the tone for such gestures—and raised the bar for them—in August, when CEO Tim Cook gave Trump an engraved glass disc with a 24-karat gold base to commemorate the company’s new $100 billion investment in the U.S. to avoid tariffs.
“It was tough to beat Apple, but the Swiss did it,” one administration official told Axios.
These lavish gifts indicate a need to reform the presidential library system so it can’t just be used to launder bribes. They also demonstrate why Congress was given power over tariffs, to prevent what is happening now: the president using his arbitrary power over the American economy to shake down businesses and foreign governments.
Nov. 6, 2025
Trump, Given His Yen for Corrupt Politicians, Is Handing Them Pardons Galore
Category: Political Corruption
Donald Trump has been abusing his pardon power on behalf of wealthy people, cronies, and the people who helped him try to steal an election. But he also uses it on behalf of reality TV con-men, and sometimes for corrupt officials just because. Most recently, he rescued two crooked state-level politicians in Tennessee.
Nashville’s WSMV has the story:
President Donald Trump has pardoned the disgraced former Speaker of the Tennessee House, Glen Casada, and one of his co-conspirators after their corruption convictions and sentencing. …
The pair were indicted in 2022, two years after more than $51,000 in state constituent mail payments were funneled to Cothren through Phoenix Solutions, with Casada and Cothren getting more than $35,000 in bribes and kickbacks, according to the government’s case.
The news comes just a day after his other co-conspirator, former Rep. Robin Smith, publicly requested a presidential pardon. Smith took a plea deal for her part in the scheme.
It’s the part about Robin Smith that is so poignant. She didn’t get a pardon and will probably spend eight months in prison, because she took a plea deal and testified. Trump regards corruption as one of the natural perks of office, and he will protect anyone who sells their office for money—but he has no sympathy for a “snitch.”
© The UnPopulist, 2025
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This is so sickening and outrageous that this story must be a practical joke.
Say it ain't so, Donald.
These sorts of articles do NOTHING to right the Left Wing ship when Biden pardoned 2000 people including his own cocaine snorting, crack smoking, criminal son, and anything associated with them.
Come on.