Washington’s top diplomat said he appreciated Mr. Asfulura’s “defense of America’s strategic objectives” with support from President Trump.
Published December 26, 2025
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Honduran President-elect Nasry Asufura, who was backed by President Donald Trump, on his victory in Central America’s contentious election.
The State Department said Friday that Mr. Rubio and Mr. Asufura discussed cooperation on trade, security and other issues in a telephone conversation.
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“Secretary Rubio praised President-elect Asufura for championing U.S. strategic objectives, including advancing bilateral and regional security cooperation and strengthening economic ties between our two countries,” the State Department said in a statement.
Asfura claimed Wednesday that he narrowly won the Nov. 30 election due to President Trump’s intervention. Election officials declared Mr. Asufura the winner after weeks of vote counting amid heightened tensions and allegations of fraud and irregularities from other candidates.
Right-wing Asufura, who represents the People’s Party, received 40.27% of the vote, compared to Nasrallah’s 39.53%, outperforming Salvador Nasrallah of the center-right Freedom Party.
“Today, with deep gratitude, I accept the honor of working for you. I extend my hand to join you in our determination to work tirelessly for Honduras. I will not disappoint you,” Asufura said in a video statement released Wednesday night.
Both Nasrallah and Rixie Moncada, a candidate from current President Xiomara Castro’s leftist Libre party who came in a distant third, are contesting the election results.
Nasrallah said Wednesday that election officials had “betrayed the Honduran people.” He also took aim at President Trump, who said before the election that a victory for anyone other than Asufura would jeopardize economic relations between the United States and Honduras.
“Mr. President, the Honduran candidates you support are complicit in silencing the people’s vote,” Nasrallah said in a social media post. “If he really deserves your support, if his hands are clean, if he has nothing to fear, why doesn’t he allow every vote to be counted?”
Honduras has had several contested elections since a 2009 U.S.-backed coup. Protests against the November elections have so far been peaceful.
Before the election, Trump also granted a critical pardon to former right-wing Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of crimes related to drug trafficking into the United States while in office.
The pardon comes as the United States says it is shifting its foreign policy focus to the Americas.
Asufura, the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, is of Palestinian descent. But his National Party is staunchly pro-Israel.
In 2021, under the Hernandez administration, Honduras became the fourth country to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, in violation of international law.
Mr. Asfura has also aligned himself with other right-wing leaders in the Americas, including Mr. Trump and Argentina’s Javier Milei.
