The US president praised his newly installed “friend” and praised the strong security relationship between the US and Honduras.

Donald Trump met with Honduran President Nasri Asfulla in Florida as the US president welcomed what he said was a growing coalition aimed at curbing drug trafficking and irregular migration.

Trump said he met with his “friend” Asfra, a conservative businessman, at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday. Asfra took office last week The election was narrowly won.

“Tito and I share many of the same America-first values,” Trump said, using Asfra’s nickname. Trump strongly supported Asfra during the campaign, even Threaten to cut off aid If he loses, go to Honduras.

“As soon as I gave him my strong endorsement, he won the election!” Trump wrote on his “Truth Social” platform.

After the meeting, Trump praised the close security partnership between the United States and Honduras, saying they would work together to “fight dangerous cartels and drug traffickers and deport illegal immigrants and gang members from the United States.”

According to the Honduran Herald, Asfra is expected to brief the Honduran media about Sunday’s meeting, “detailing the issues discussed, the tone of the dialogue and the possible outcomes of the dialogue.”

The Honduran president’s meeting with Trump comes less than a month after he met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on January 12, after which the two countries announced plans for a free trade agreement.

Asfra’s rise provides Trump with another conservative ally in Latin America, following recent electoral changes in countries such as Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina that saw leftist governments replaced.

Just before the election in Honduras, Trump pardoned the country’s former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Asfula’s party who served 45 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.

Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle, reporting from Palm Beach, Florida, said the pardon was “widely viewed as a gesture of solidarity with the new president’s (Asfra’s) party.”

The decision prompted a backlash, especially as the Trump administration cited its crackdown on drug trafficking to justify aggressive actions abroad. These include a series of bombings of suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and later Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro kidnappedHe currently faces charges including related to drug trafficking in the United States.