Lawrence O’Donnell Says Trump ‘Does Not Care About Drug Trafficking’ With 1 Potent Example

On Dec 11, 2025

MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday argued President Donald Trump “does not care about drug trafficking” — despite the deadly U.S. military campaign that has been striking alleged smuggling vessels in Caribbean and Pacific waters since September.

“These are the kinds of boats you see being used for fishing or waterskiing very close to shore or on totally calm lakes,” said O’Donnell. “These are among the smallest boats ever attacked by the American military or any military anywhere in the world.”

The “Last Word” host continued, “These boats are too small to carry even a ton of cargo when Donald Trump pardoned a drug trafficker who was responsible for delivering over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States and got convicted for it.”

O’Donnell was referring to ex-Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced in the U.S. last year to 45 years in prison, and said, “There is nothing more Donald Trump could do to prove that he absolutely does not care about drug trafficking.”

When asked last week about the pardon and how the release of Hernández shows zero tolerance for drug trafficking, Trump said he knows “very little” about him and that he was wrongfully convicted in a “setup” during former President Joe Biden’s term.

“He doesn’t really care,” said O’Donnell about Trump’s purported disdain for traffickers.

His administration has been striking alleged drug boats for months, killing more than 80 people since September. These operations have alarmed even some Republicans, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who previously likened the strikes to “summary execution.”

O’Donnell previously suggested Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth engaged in illegal activity on Sept. 2, when the U.S. military killed the shipwrecked survivors of one alleged drug boat in a follow-on strike off the Trinidad coast, and doubled down Tuesday.

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Hegseth has since said he has “to study it” before releasing the full video of the Sept. 2 strike.

O’Donnell said he “didn’t have to study it when he released the first video of that same attack, the video that shows the first missile hitting that very small boat and killing nine of the 11 people on that boat. Pete Hegseth wanted you to see those nine people killed.”

He added, “There’s something about that second missile he doesn’t want you to see.”

The MS NOW host noted that the Trump administration has had no problem publishing footage of other deadly strikes on social media but is curiously hesitant to release the full video from Sept. 2 — and is now floating the idea of sending troops to Venezuela.

O’Donnell went on to dismiss that threat as “distraction bait” amid the ongoing release of files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late accused child trafficker who once called Trump his “closest friend” — and died behind bars while awaiting federal trial.

HuffPost has reached out to the White House for comment.