CV NEWS FEED // President Donald Trump met Monday with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at the White House, where Bukele expressed support for Trump’s treatment of crime, illegal immigration, and border enforcement.
Bukele praised Trump as a leader with “350 million people to liberate,” citing El Salvador’s dramatic turnaround from being the “murder capital of the world” to “the safest country in the Western Hemisphere.”
“We know that you have a crime problem, a terrorism problem, that you need help with,” Bukele told Trump. “And we’re a small country, but if we can help, we will do it.”
The meeting comes amid recent media scrutiny of the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal immigrants—including gang members from terrorist organizations like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua—to El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Bukele defended the deportations, saying, “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.”
He emphasized that imprisoning thousands of criminals in El Salvador helped “liberate millions” from fear and violence.
The leaders also discussed the controversial deportation of MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, who had been living illegally in Maryland.
When pressed about whether El Salvador would release Abrego Garcia into the US, Bukele dismissed the claim: “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”
“We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country,” he added. “You want us…to go back to being the murder capital of the world. That’s not going to happen.”
Later, the discussion turned to gender ideology as Trump asked whether El Salvador allows biological men to compete in women’s sports.
“That’s violence,” Bukele responded.
“That’s abuse of a woman,” Trump agreed. “But we have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women’s sports.”