In a tense and politically fraught meeting at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele amid escalating legal and diplomatic backlash over the recent deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland resident wrongly expelled to El Salvador. This high-profile encounter unfolded against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement campaign and its controversial alliances with foreign leaders, particularly those sympathetic to its hardline stance on security and migration. The visit cast a spotlight on the increasingly complex entanglement of domestic deportation practices, judicial defiance, and international diplomacy under Trump’s second administration.
The case of Kilmar Abrego García illustrates the perilous convergence of legal negligence and authoritarian expedience. Despite holding a U.S. work permit since 2019 and having been protected under a court order against deportation to El Salvador due to credible fears of persecution, García was forcibly expelled in March. U.S. immigration authorities acknowledged the act as an “administrative error,” yet sought to minimize responsibility, with Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller dismissing the mistake as a “hoax” and reiterating the administration’s stance that García, a legally residing Salvadoran, was an “illegal alien” and a suspected gang member—a claim his family strenuously denies and which lacks substantiation in the deportation records.
The Trump administration’s legal position hinges on a narrow interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, which ordered that federal authorities “facilitate” García’s return. According to the White House, this does not obligate them to proactively repatriate him but merely to remove domestic bureaucratic impediments, thus offloading the moral and practical burden onto El Salvador. Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed this view, stating that the U.S. would be willing to “provide a plane” if El Salvador chose to return García, placing the onus squarely on Bukele’s government.
In remarks from the Oval Office, Trump and Bukele projected unity and mutual admiration. Trump praised Bukele’s leadership in addressing gang violence and “helping us out” with what he described as a U.S. “terrorism problem.” Bukele reciprocated by expressing his eagerness to support U.S. objectives. Their statements glossed over the troubling human rights implications of detaining hundreds of Venezuelan and Salvadoran deportees, many without criminal records or due process, in the Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador. Cecot, a maximum-security facility with capacity for 40,000 inmates, has become emblematic of Bukele’s authoritarian crackdown on crime. Despite mounting evidence of torture, arbitrary detention, and inmate deaths, the prison has been celebrated by elements of the American right as a model of effective governance. Trump, when asked whether he had concerns about the prison’s human rights record, tersely responded, “I don’t see it.”
The United States deported ten additional alleged gang members to El Salvador during the same weekend as Bukele’s visit, further consolidating the punitive transnational mechanism that has taken shape between the two administrations. While Trump’s team claims these individuals are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang—deemed by U.S. officials to be a terrorist organization—the names, backgrounds, and specific charges of the deportees remain undisclosed. Court documents reviewed by CBS and The Guardian confirm that many of those swept up in the mass deportations had no criminal records, raising grave concerns about the blanket association of Latin American immigrants with gang activity as a justification for extrajudicial removal and imprisonment.
This ongoing defiance of judicial authority is not confined to García’s case. The Trump administration has also detained Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a senior postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, on flimsy national security grounds linked to decade-old alleged affiliations of his father-in-law and pro-Palestinian social media posts. Over 370 alumni and 65 students of Georgetown condemned the detention in an open letter, characterizing it as an assault on academic freedom and an attempt to instill fear among immigrant scholars. The case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate detained for leading pro-Palestinian protests, further demonstrates the Trump administration’s campaign to equate dissent with criminality, weaponizing immigration law to suppress political expression.
Simultaneously, Trump continued to weave a volatile narrative about foreign policy, trade, and national security. When pressed on Vladimir Putin’s responsibility for the war in Ukraine, Trump momentarily acknowledged the Russian president’s culpability, only to retreat into a characteristically evasive blame game, faulting Biden, Zelenskyy, and high oil prices for allowing the war to happen. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, incensed by what he views as American indulgence of Kremlin propaganda, invited Trump to witness firsthand the devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion—a war which Trump ambiguously described as “a mistake” while refusing to commit to concrete action or accountability.
Meanwhile, Trump’s economic policies drew sharp criticism from global leaders and financial experts. Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio warned of an economic downturn “worse than a recession” due to the destabilizing effect of Trump’s tariff regime, particularly the 145% levy on Chinese goods. While the White House offered temporary relief by exempting smartphones and semiconductors from the steepest tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later contradicted this softening, asserting that such devices would soon face new duties as part of a broader national security strategy. Despite reassurances from Chinese officials that “the sky won’t fall,” global markets remained volatile, with investors struggling to interpret the shifting trade signals emanating from Washington.
China’s President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, embarked on a regional charm offensive, visiting Vietnam to reinforce economic ties and to present a united front against U.S. trade aggression. Emphasizing socialist solidarity and condemning protectionism without naming the U.S. directly, Xi signaled Beijing’s determination to maintain regional influence even as American tariffs disrupt established trade flows. Vietnam, navigating its dual allegiances to Washington and Beijing, finds itself squeezed between two economic giants, its exports jeopardized by 46% U.S. tariffs that have only been temporarily suspended.
Adding to the disorder, Trump’s foreign policy team pushed for a second round of nuclear negotiations with Iran, to be hosted in Rome, with indirect talks in Oman having yielded tepid results. At the same time, Trump’s administration faces backlash for gutting the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as Pete Marocco, who led the dismantling effort, abruptly exited the State Department. His departure follows the dismissal of hundreds of staffers and contractors, part of a sweeping agenda to reduce foreign assistance and redirect U.S. global strategy toward transactional nationalism.
In a further symbolic gesture of U.S. retrenchment, Trump escalated his war on transgender rights, conflating gender identity with physical violence during a surreal exchange with Bukele about women’s sports and cabinet diversity. This fusion of xenophobia, moral panic, and populist authoritarianism permeated the entire spectacle of Bukele’s visit, portraying a political order increasingly defined by militarized borders, legal nihilism, and the normalization of human rights violations in the name of national sovereignty.
All of this takes place as American institutions—including the judiciary, academia, and the free press—are pushed to the brink by a regime that has grown ever more adept at circumventing both the spirit and the letter of constitutional constraints. As Trump deepens his alliances with strongmen like Bukele, and as federal agencies flout court orders with impunity, the American experiment in democratic accountability teeters precariously between cynical spectacle and authoritarian entrenchment.
Gros News 
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