Trump to welcome Bukele to the White House amid controversy over mistakenly deported migrant

Saturday was a rare lull in the frenetic roller coaster of Donald Trump’s presidency. He spent the day indulging in two of his favorite pastimes: golfing in Palm Beach, near his Mar-a-Lago estate, and attending a mixed martial arts event with a celebrity entourage that included Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and UFC president Dana White.

Trump also commented somewhat reluctantly aboard Air Force One on several hot-button issues — tariffs, negotiations with Iran, Russia, Ukraine — and shared one post (an oddly quiet weekend) on his social media platform, Truth Social: “Looking forward to seeing President Bukele of El Salvador on Monday!”

Nayib Bukele begins this week with his first official visit to Washington. In view of Trump’s post, he can count on a favorable reception at the White House — a luxury not all visiting leaders enjoy these days, as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy knows all too well.

Bukele’s arrival coincides with an ongoing tug-of-war between the Trump administration and U.S. courts over the fate of Kilmar Armando Abrego García, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. He was placed on a flight used to send more than 250 men — allegedly migrant criminals — to be processed and imprisoned at the country’s notorious mega-prison, the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot), one of the most feared detention centers in the hemisphere. It remains unclear whether Abrego García’s case will be on the agenda of the visit.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of the 29-year-old construction worker, who had lived in the U.S. for 14 years and is the father of three children. The Supreme Court rejected the administration’s defense that it had no means of bringing him back, despite having acknowledged the deportation was due to an “administrative error.”

On Saturday, following pressure from the Maryland judge overseeing the case, Paula Xinis — who had ordered daily updates on its progress — U.S. authorities sent a formal communication assuring the court that Abrego García is “alive and secure” in the prison where he is being “detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.” This statement was made by Michael G. Kozak, an official with the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs — Washington’s designation for the Americas — who cited the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador as his source.

The idea of El Salvador as a “sovereign nation” featured prominently in the rest of Trump’s Saturday message welcoming President Bukele. “Our nations are working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations and build a future of Prosperity,” the Republican president wrote. “President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States. These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government. They will never threaten or menace our Citizens again!”

Bukele arrived on Saturday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where a film crew was stationed to capture the moment his plane touched down. The 43-year-old president was welcomed on the tarmac and later posted an edited video of the landing to his X account, together with three emojis: an American flag, a Salvadoran flag, and a handshake.

White House press spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at her Friday news conference that Trump and Bukele “will discuss El Salvador’s partnership on using their Supermax prison for Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members and how El Salvador’s cooperation with the United States has become a model for others to work with this administration.”

In exchange for this arrangement, the Bukele government receives $6 million — an amount, according to Bukele, that is a “very low fee for them, but a high one for us.” The Central American country found itself among the best off in Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariff distribution, with a modest rate of just 10%. What’s more, the State Department lowered its travel advisory for U.S. citizens visiting El Salvador to the lowest alert level. Bukele celebrated the change, comparing it to receiving a “U.S. State Department’s travel gold star.”

These gestures are also a reflection of the Salvadoran president’s ongoing effort to become a favorite of the MAGA movement. This alignment boosts his popularity at home in El Salvador and wins him favor among conservative sectors across Latin America.

However, criticism is growing over his increasingly authoritarian tendencies. In a sarcastic defense against such critiques, he once described himself on Twitter as “the world’s coolest dictator.”

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