President Trump invited the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, into the Oval Office and they met with key members of the Cabinet and the press.
I transcribed the portion of the interview that dealt with the MS13 gangster, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador living in Maryland, who was deported to El Salvador and whether he would be brought back to the US after the SCOTUS ruling. It’s about 15 minutes and worth your time.
The fake new is spinning this story every which way - with lots of edited sound bites and clips - but I think it is important for everyone to hear EXACTLY what Team Trump & the President of El Salvador said on this issue instead of hearing another “interpretation” of exactly what was said:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to have a friend of mine because we went through this together and we got along very well. I knew him as a ‘very young’ man. Now he’s just a young man and he’s doing a fantastic job. It’s an honor to have you here, Mr. President. Thank you. You're building incredibly for your country and we appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime, and so do we, and it's very very effective and I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say they have one hell of a president! Okay, I mean that and I know him well. I want to thank you for the great job you’re doing. I appreciate it. Thank you.
PRESIDENT BUKELE: Well, it’s an honor to be in the Oval Office with the president and leader of the free world. We’re very happy and we’re very eager to help. We know that [America] has a crime problem and a terrorism problem that you need help with and we're a small country but if we can help we will do it.
We actually turned the murder capital of the world [El Salvador] - that was the journalist’s word for it - into the safest country in the western hemisphere. They sometimes say that we imprisoned thousands, but I like to say that we actually liberated millions.
TRUMP: That's very good line. Who gave him that line? Do you think I can use that?
BUKELE: Yes, in fact, Mr. President you have 350 million people to liberate, but to liberate 350 million people you have to imprison some. That's the way it works, right? You cannot just free the criminals and think crime is going to go down magically. You have to imprison them so you can liberate 350 million Americans that are asking for the end of crime and the end of terrorism. It can be done - you're doing it already and I'm sure that people have seen the change in the streets.
You have a long way to go because you're just initiating your second term but it's clear that with the numbers at the border, even in Democrat run cities, they get help from from the work you're doing so I'm really happy to be here honored and eager to help.
TRUMP: Well, we had a terrible thing happen. We had a an administration that allowed people to come in freely into our country - from not only South America but from all over the world, many from the Congo in Africa, Asia, all over the world, from Europe, rough parts of Europe and they came from prisons and they came from mental institutions and they came from gangs - like the gangs of Venezuela and other places. Hundreds of thousands and even millions of them came. 21 million people altogether but many of the people that came, just a tremendous percentage of them, were criminals - in some cases, violent criminals.
We had 11,088 known murderers - half of them murdered more than one person. This was allowed by [Biden] - what he did to our country is just unbelievable. So we're straightening it out. We're getting them out but what they did and what the [Democrat] party did to our country with open borders where anybody could come in. As soon as I heard that I said "Every prison [in the world] is going to be emptied out into our country." That's what happened and we're straightening it out.
We just had the highest recruiting numbers in the history of our country going into police departments. A year ago we had the lowest numbers - you couldn't hire. In the military now - Marines, the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, every slot - we have the best [recruiting] numbers we've ever had. We have records on every single level - but very important the policemen are joining forces now. We really were having a hard time [recruiting] policemen because they weren't protecting our police. We cherish our police, the police are great and the firemen and everybody else. We now have the highest numbers we've ever had - great enthusiasm.
And, on trade and other things, we're doing great. We're taking in billions and billions of dollars. Two weeks ago, I gave them a little bit of a pause, because you know you have to show a little flexibility, but we go back to what we have to do. The markets have been very strong, once they got used to it, but we were losing 2 billion dollars a day - now we're making 3 billion dollars a day. We're a great country but we had stupid people running this country.
What they've done to us at the border should never and can never be forgotten, it's a sin what they did. You are helping us out and we appreciate it - thank you.
BUKELE: Actually, what you're doing with with the border is remarkable. It has dropped what 95%? It’s incredible.
TRUMP: As of this morning, it’s 99.1% to be exact.
BUKELE: Why are those numbers not in the media?
TRUMP: The fake news like CNN over here doesn't want to put them out because they don't like they don't like putting out good numbers. I think they hate our country actually. It’s a shame. You're right - isn't that a great question? Why doesn't the media put out numbers like 99%. It’s crazy right? We’re doing great - it's a crazy turnaround.
Kristi, could you maybe say a couple of words about the border, how we're doing?
KRISTI NOEM: It's just been absolutely phenomenal what a great leader can do with clear direction. Our laws matter. We should only have people in our country that love us and the Border Patrol and our ICE officers and law enforcement officers have done fantastic work. We're proud of them - now we just need to get the criminals and murderers and rapists and dangerous gang members and terrorist organizations out of our country so Mr. President Bukele - we thank you very much for your partnership. It has been wonderful for us to be able to have somewhere to send the worst of the worst and someone to partner with and we'd like to continue that partnership because it's been a powerful message of consequences.
President Trump, you wanted people to know that there was consequences if you break our laws and harm our people and endanger families and this is a clear consequence for the worst of the worst - we have somewhere to put them. Thank you very much.
BUKEKE: Yeah, we even had this gang member from Venezuela - one of the ones you sent and we interviewed him just you know to get some information from him and he said:
“Oh, you know, I got arrested six times [in America] but they released me there six times so I should be released again." And then I said "Well, what's the last thing last thing you did there?" And he said, "Well I shot a cop in the leg but I didn't kill him, I just shot him in the leg." And we're like, "This guy was arrested six times in the United States, six times he was released, six times. Actually, he was released five times and the last time he was sent to El Salvador, right? So, he's not getting a release but the last time he shot a cop actually and he shot him in the leg so - there's something broken.
TRUMP: The liberal establishment - they're not running things anymore in this country and we're run by, and I don't say conservative, it’s now run by people with great common sense. It's all common sense - it's not liberal or conservative - it’s common sense.
REPORTER: Do you plan to ask President Bukele to help return the man who your administration says was mistakenly deported to El Salvador?
TRUMP: Let me ask Pam to answer that question?
PAM BONDI: Sure, Mr. President. First and foremost, he was illegally in our country and he had been illegally in our country for years. In 2019, two courts - an immigration court and an appellate immigration court - ruled that he WAS a member of MS13 and he was illegally in our country. It’s now up to El Salvador if they want to return him, that's not up to us.
The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador wants to return him to the US - as this is now an international matter and foreign affairs - that if they wanted to return him - we would facilitate it. Meaning, provide a plane.
CNN REPORTER: So will you return him?
TRUMP TO BONDI: You are doing a great job, thank you.
TRUMP TO STEPHEN MILLER: Wait a minute, could you just also respond to that question because you know it's asked by CNN and they always ask it with a slant - because they're totally slanted because they don't know what's happening. That's why nobody's watching CNN - but would you answer that question also, please, Stephen.
STEPHEN MILLER: Yes, gladly. So as Pam mentioned there's an illegal alien from El Salvador - he's a citizen of El Salvador so it's very arrogant even for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens as a starting point.
Two immigration courts found that he was a member of MS-13 when President Trump declared MS-13 to be a foreign terrorist organization and that meant that he was no longer eligible under federal law for any form of immigration relief in the United States. He had a deportation order that was valid which meant that under our law he's not even allowed to be present in the United States and had to be returned because of the foreign terrorist designation.
This issue was then, by a district court judge, completely inverted and a district court judge tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here.
That issue was raised to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said the district court order was unlawful and its main components were reversed, 9-0 unanimously, stating clearly that neither the Secretary of State nor the President could be compelled by anybody to forcibly retrieve a citizen of El Salvador from El Salvador.
Who again is a member of MS-13 - which as I'm sure you understand rapes little girls, murders women, murders children, is engaged in the most barbaric activities in the world and I can promise you if he was your neighbor you would move right away.
The Supreme Court ruled nine to nothing in our favor against the district court ruling saying that no district court has the power to compel the foreign policy function of the United States. As Pam said the ruling stated that if this individual, at El Salvador's sole discretion, was sent back to our country that we could deport him a second time.
NO version of this legally ends up with him ever living here because he is a citizen of El Salvador. That is the president of El Salvador. Your questions about it, per the court, can only be directed to him.
REPORTER: Can President Bukele weigh in on this? Do you plan to return him?
BUKELE: Well, are you suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States, right how? How can I return him to the United States? Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States.
REPORTER: But you can release him inside of El Salvador.
BUKELE: Yeah, but I'm not releasing him in El Salvador. I mean we're not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country of the western hemisphere and you want us to go back into the releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? No, that's that's not going to happen.
TRUMP: Well, [the fake news] would love to have a criminal released. There's there's a fascination they have - they would love it - yeah they're sick these are sick people. Marco, do you have something to say about this?
MARCO RUBIO: Stephen, I don't understand what the confusion is. This individual is a citizen of El Salvador - he was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That's where you deport people back - to their country of origin - except for places like Venezuela that was refusing to take people back. I can tell you this, Mr President, now the foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States - not by a court and no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States it's that simple, end of story.
STEPHEN MILLER: And, that's what the Supreme Court held, by the way, to Marco's point. The Supreme Court said exactly what Marco said: that no court has the authority to compel the foreign policy function of the United States. We won the case 9-0 and people like CNN are portraying it as a loss as usual because they want foreign terrorists in the country who kidnap women and children.
CNN REPORTER: Mr. President, you said that if the Supreme Court said someone needed to be returned that you would abide by that. You said that on Air Force One just a few days ago.
TRUMP: Why don't you just say isn't it wonderful that we're keeping criminals out of our country? Why can't you just say that? Why do you go over and over and that's why nobody watches you anymore. You know you have no credibility.
REPORTER: How many illegal criminals are you planning on exporting to El Salvador and President Bukele how many are you willing to take from the US?
TRUMP: As many as possible. It's this massive complex that he built, jail complex, and I asked him: "Can you build some more of them please as many as we can get out of our country that were allowed in here by incompetent Joe Biden through open borders." We have millions of people that should not be in this country that are dangerous. We have millions of people that are murderers, drug dealers.
They've been allowed to come into our country by other countries that were very smart when they heard that this very low IQ president [Biden] and by the way I took my cognitive exam as part of my physical exam and I got the highest mark and one of the doctors said: "Sir I've never seen anybody get that kind of that was the highest mark. I hope you're happy with that."
Nobody is asking questions about that so I’m going to tell you.
They said: "Sir, would you like to take a cognitive test?" I said, "Did Biden take one?" "No." "Did anybody take one?" They said, "No not too many people took one." I said "What about what about Obama, did he take one?" "No he didn't take one either." So, I said "Let me be the only one to take one." But I've actually taken them three times already.
REPORTER: Would the US be willing to help El Salvador pay for those facilities to be opened if new ones were going to be built?
TRUMP: I’d do something - we'd help them out. They're great facilities, very strong facilities. They don't play games. I’d like to go a step further. I said to Pam that I don’t know what the laws are - we always have to obey the laws - but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters and I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country. We’ll have to be looking at the laws on that, Steve.
REPORTER: Do you think more presidents should follow suit like you guys as far as taking a hard stance on crime here in the United States?
TRUMP: President Bukele said it better than anybody. He said you know you have to have liberty and to have liberty - not everybody is going to be good - some are bad because they're sick, they're mentally deranged, they're bad. If you're going to have a country you're going to have to take those people out.
The open border was like an unforced error - run by people that may hate our country or maybe they're just stupid people. A lot of people said they did it for the vote but I did better with Hispanic people than they did. I saw my poll numbers in El Salvador - up through the roof right at 91%. Some people think they [opened our borders] for the vote but they don’t have to do it for the vote because they cheat. These are professional cheaters - that's about the only thing they do well.
REPORTER: You mentioned that you're open to deporting individuals that aren't foreign aliens but are criminals to El Salvador. Does that include potentially US citizens fully naturalized in America?
TRUMP: If they're criminals and if they hit people with baseball bats over their head that happen to be 90 years old and if they rape 87 year old women in Coney Island - yeah, that includes them. They're as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones too and I'm all for it because we can do things with President Bukele for less money and have great security. We have a huge prison population, we have a huge number of prisons and then we have the private prisons and some are operated well and some aren't. If it's a homegrown criminal, we we're studying the laws right now."
I THINK THAT ABOUT SAYS IT ALL!
UPDATE FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP: Moments ago, the Illegal Criminal, who was allowed into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden, was convicted of the heinous murder of Rachel Morin. Rachel was a beautiful mother of five from Maryland, and her life was taken at the hands of a monster who should have NEVER been here in the first place.
The Fake News should be focusing on the beautiful life and tragic death of this Maryland Mother, rather than the so-called “Maryland Father,” who is actually an MS-13 Gang Member and Foreign Terrorist from El Salvador. We will never forget Rachel Morin, and are committed to protecting women like her across our Country. We will deport Illegal Murderers, Rapists, and Criminals. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
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