Donald Trump hosted El Salvador’s dictator, Nayib Bukele, in the White House today. The two had a conversation in front of reporters where they had an extended exchange about transgender women’s rights.
“Do you allow men to play in women’s sports?” Trump asked Bukele, referring to trans women as “men.” “Do you allow men to box your women? I know you have a lot of boxers.”
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“That’s violence,” Bukele responded. El Salvador has made headlines recently for illegally holding U.S. residents in a torture camp.
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“That’s abuse of a woman,” Trump said.
“That’s abuse of against women,” Bukele mumbled in agreement.
“But we have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women’s sports,” Trump droned on. “Some of those sports, it wouldn’t matter much, but it still matters, but some of them are very dangerous for women.”
“Some years ago, [unintelligible] women’s rights groups were pressuring that we enact the specific laws to avoid men abusing women, and I think those laws were great because there are a lot of men abusing women,” Bukele said. “But now some of the same people are trying to backtrack on that and actually trying to make new laws allowing men to abuse women in sports,”
TRUMP: Do you allow men to play in women's sports? Do you allow men to box your women? BUKELE: That's violence TRUMP: That's abuse of a woman
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 14, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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The Trump administration sent hundreds of people to El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), a mega prison notorious for torturing inmates and keeping them in inhumane conditions.
The Trump administration has admitted that at least one person, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a U.S. resident from El Salvador, was sent there due to “an administrative error.” The Supreme Court has ordered the administration to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., but Trump has refused, arguing that the U.S. is under no obligation to help him get out of CECOT and that federal courts don’t have the authority to order the Executive Branch to “conduct foreign relations in a particular way.”
A reporter asked Bukele about returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S., and Bukele called the question “preposterous,” saying that Abrego Garcia is a “terrorist,” despite the administration’s admission that this is not true.
Trump stepped in to defend Bukele, saying that the assembled reporters were “sick people,” apparently not even realizing himself that his administration admitted that Abrego Garcia is not a terrorist or a gang member.
COLLINS: Can President Bukele weigh in on this? Do you plan to return Garcia? BUKELE: How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous TRUMP: These are sick people
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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Also, during their meeting, Trump confirmed that he wants to deport U.S. citizens to CECOT as well “if they are criminals and hit people with baseball bats, if they rape 87-year-old women, yeah, yeah.”
REPORTER: You mentioned you're open to deporting individuals that aren't foreign aliens but aren't criminal to El Salvador. Does that include US citizens? TRUMP: If they are criminals and hit people with baseball bats, if they rape 87 year old women, yeah. Yeah. That includes them. I'm all for it.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 14, 2025 at 6:22 PM
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Trump asked Bukele to build “about five more places” because “home-growns are next.”
CECOT is “not big enough” to hold all the Americans he wants to send there, Trump stressed.
“Home-growns”mean any of us. And with no guarantee of due process and administrative incompetence, this could be life sentences in El Salvador for any of us.
— Rozenia Stanford (@rystanford.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 6:59 PM
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