Trump pardons drug kingpins even as he escalates U.S. drug war rhetoric : NPR

President Trump has long called for escalating the U.S. drug war against Mexican cartels and wants tougher penalties for dealers selling fentanyl and other street drugs in American communities. “I am ready for it, the death penalty, if you deal drugs,” Trump said during a meeting with state governors in February, where he said dealers are too often treated with a “slap on the wrist.”

But despite his tough rhetoric, Trump has sparked controversy by pardoning a growing number of convicted drug dealers, including this week’s move to grant clemency to Larry Hoover, 74, who was serving multiple life sentences in federal prison for crimes linked to his role leading the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples.

Already during the early months of his second term, Trump has granted clemency to at least eight individuals convicted on federal drug charges. Some, including Hoover, have extensive criminal records involving violence and gun charges.

“There’s a lot of mixed messages and mixed signals [from the White House] which creates sort of chaos and uncertainty,” said Jeffrey Singer, a drug policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank. “On the one hand you’re threatening even tougher penalties on people who deal in drugs, while on the other hand you’re releasing drug dealers from prisons.”

The case of Larry Hoover and the Gangster Disciples

Ron Safer, a former U.S. attorney in Chicago who helped prosecute members of the Gangster Disciples during the 1990s, said he was shocked and dismayed by Trump’s decision to commute Hoover’s sentence.

He pointed out that Hoover’s gang was one of the largest and most violent drug syndicates in the U.S., operating in 35 states according to the U.S Justice Department. Hoover himself was convicted of state and federal charges including murder and use of a firearm while trafficking drugs.

“Larry Hoover was the head of perhaps the most pernicious, efficient drug operation in the United States,” Safer said. “They sold over $100 million of drugs a year in the city of Chicago alone. They were responsible for countless murders. They supported their drug territories with ruthless violence.”

Hoover was first incarcerated in 1973 after being convicted of murder. In the 1990s, he was convicted of federal charges linked to his role directing the Gangster Disciples.

Hoover is now expected to be transferred from a federal supermax prison to a state correctional facility in Illinois, where he’ll remain behind bars, for now, because of the state-level murder conviction. Hoover has sought clemency from Illinois officials before, though his latest bid for parole was rejected overwhelmingly by a state review board in December 2022.

But a White House spokesman, commenting on background because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, told NPR the Trump administration expects Illinois officials to follow the federal government’s lead by freeing Hoover.

“There have been many advocates saying the time [Hoover] served in prison was adequate,” the spokesman said.

Amid calls for tough punishments, clemency for high-level drug traffickers

Trump’s clemency for Hoover and other drug offenders follows a pattern that began during his first term in the White House. While promising tough action against drug dealers, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of at least 13 people convicted of federal drug crimes between 2017 and 2021, including high-level dealers linked to violence or convicted of operating major trafficking rings.

In 2020, Trump’s administration also freed a senior Mexican military official arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles on charges he helped cartels traffic drugs into the U.S. Under pressure from Mexico’s government, officials in Trump’s Justice Department dropped prosecution of General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda.

In the first month of his second term, Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, a former, a former tech entrepreneur serving a life term in federal prison for creating Silk Road, a dark web internet site that became a major conduit for drug traffickers.

“Ulbricht also demonstrated a willingness to use violence to protect his criminal enterprise and the anonymity of its users, soliciting six murders-for-hire in connection with operating the site, although there is no evidence that these murders were actually carried out,” federal prosecutors said in a statement after Ulbricht was sentenced in 2015.

Commenting on background, the White House spokesman said there is no contradiction between Trump’s tough-on-dealers rhetoric and his decisions to free some individuals involved in drug trafficking.

“The punishment does not always fit the crime,” the spokesman said. “The president is open to seeing if these people are worthy of redemption.”

Some critics of the U.S. drug war offered cautious praise of Trump’s use of presidential authority to free drug offenders.

“President Trump’s potential decision to grant clemency to people with drug convictions offers a crucial lifeline to those affected and affirms what communities have long known: Criminalization of drugs is ineffective and harmful,” said Kassandra Frederique, head of the Drug Policy Alliance, in a statement sent to NPR.

But Frederique is critical of Trump’s wider stance on drug policy. “These individual acts of clemency starkly contrast with the administration’s broader tough-on-crime rhetoric and its ongoing efforts to dismantle lifesaving health services,” Frederique said.

Some view Trump’s pardons as “transactional”

During his final days in office, President Joe Biden pardoned thousands of offenders, many of them incarcerated on federal drug charges. Biden said the move reflected his growing unease with the drug war.

“This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars,” Biden said.

Drug policy experts interviewed by NPR said it’s difficult to find a coherent philosophy behind Trump’s use of clemency. According to the Cato Institute’s Singer, Trump’s pardons often appear “transactional” and often reflect the influence of powerful individuals.

“He actually promised in front of the Libertarian Party convention that if he was elected he would pardon Ross Ulbricht. That was a promise he made hoping to get support from Libertarians,” Singer said. “It’s not like there’s an ideological thread running through [Trump’s] decisions.”

During that campaign appearance in 2024, Trump openly linked his plan to commute Ulbricht’s sentence to his bid for the White House. “If you vote for me, on day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served,” Trump said, sparking applause from Ulbricht’s supporters.

The release of Larry Hoover, meanwhile, was championed by the artist Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — who thanked Trump this week on the social media platform X. “WORDS CAN’T EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR OUR DEVOTED ENDURING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP FOR FREEING LARRY HOOVER,” Ye wrote.

During his first term, Trump pardoned and freed Alice Marie Johnson after the reality TV star Kim Kardashian called for her release. Johnson was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life behind bars for her nonviolent role as part of a Memphis, Tenn., cocaine trafficking ring. Earlier this year, Trump appointed her to serve as his “pardon czar.”

In a social media post, Johnson, too, praised the president’s latest round of pardons.

“Today 26 deserving individuals were granted clemencies and pardons. Each one represents a story of redemption, rehabilitation, and resilience,” Johnson said on the platform X. “Their second chance is a second shot at life.”