Today's recap
At a meeting in the Oval Office today, Donald Trump and El Salvador president Nayib Bukele both claimed they didn’t have the power to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcìa back to the US, despite the Trump administration conceding in court documents that he was deported by mistake and in the face of the supreme court upholding an order to facilitate his return. US attorney general Pam Bondi said the decision was El Salvador’s to make, adding: “If they want to, we would provide a plane.” Baselessly labeling Abrego Garcìa a “terrorist”, Bukele refused to order his return, calling the idea “preposterous”, and also ruled out releasing him within El Salvador. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller went further, saying that even if El Salvador did send Abrego Garcìa back to the US, the administration would deport him again. “No version of this legally ends with him ever living here,” he said. They all repeatedly referred to Abrego Garcìa as an “illegal alien”, which he was not, and Miller insisted that the illegal deportation was not a mistake. Meanwhile, Trump reaffirmed that he is “all for” deporting naturalized American citizens to El Salvador, and urged Bukele to build more Cecot-style prisons so the US could deport “as many as possible”.
It comes as another leader of Columbia University’s campus protest movement against Israel’s war on Gaza was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Palestinian student and green card holder Mohsen Mahdawi, who has been in the US for the last 10 years, was detained when he went to attend his citizenship interview. He now faces an order to deport him to the occupied West Bank. Vermont lawmakers Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Becca Balint have issued a statement calling for his immediate release: “This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.” Meanwhile, more than 370 alumni of Georgetown University joined 65 current students there in signing on to a letter opposing immigration authorities’ detention of Dr Badar Khan Suri, a senior postdoctoral fellow. Immigration officials revoked his J-1 student visa, alleging his father-in-law was an adviser to Hamas officials more than a decade ago – and claiming he was “deportable” because of his posts on social media in support of Palestine. The cases are the latest in a string of Ice arrests instigated by the Trump administration targeting pro-Palestinian students and scholars present in the US on visas or green cards.
Also today:
Trump assigned culpability to Vladimir Putin for starting the war in Ukraine. It was buried among his usual claims that Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had somehow “let it happen”, but it was there. He told reporters: “That’s a war that should’ve never been allowed to start. Biden couldn’t stopped it and Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it, and Putin should’ve never started it. Everybody’s to blame.” It comes after Zelenskyy invited Trump to visit Ukraine to see the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion, following comments from the US president that appeared to play down Moscow’s latest deadly attack, the worst on civilians this year, calling it “a mistake” on Sunday.
The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, warned that the chances of a US recession have “increased” in the wake of Trump’s tariffs and that an escalating trade war poses “material risks” for US and global growth. The Wall Street boss said the growing uncertainty over the fallout of US tariffs could spell trouble for companies and consumers and wreak havoc on the economy.
Rome will host a second round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran following the “positive” and “constructive” talks held on Saturday in Oman. Steve Witkoff and lead Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi talked for roughly 45 minutes this weekend – a win for the Trump administration, which had wanted direct rather than indirect negotiations. It comes as Trump reiterated his threat of a potential military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if it does not abandon any drive for a nuclear weapon.
The Department of Education is freezing about $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University. The announcement comes after the Ivy-league school has decided to fight the White House’s demands that it crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations, including shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The White House will ask Congress to cancel the $9.3bn already approved for foreign aid initiatives, public broadcasting and other programs. In a statement, the White House said, “American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’.”
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In a statement, the White House said, “American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’.”
Donald Trump has long loathed public broadcasting. On the campaign trail last year, he posted on social media: “NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!”
Once Trump took office, Trump’s head of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Chairman Brendan Carr told the organizations “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.” Both organizations rejected the claim that they had violated any advertising regulations.
But Carr also indicated he was undertaking the investigation with an eye toward defunding public broadcasting.
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The White House will ask Congress to cancel the $9.3bn already approved for foreign aid initiatives, public broadcasting and other programs, Politico reports.
From Politico:
Congress is expected to receive that so-called rescissions request when lawmakers return from their two-week recess later this month. To nix the funding, the House and Senate will each have to vote at a simple-majority threshold to approve the formal ask.
The White House package is expected to target funding for the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Institute of Peace and other programs, along with assistance to PBS and NPR through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
It would answer a call from congressional Republicans, who have ramped up their demands in recent months to defund public media companies for alleged bias against conservatives in programming and coverage. The CEOs of PBS and NPR testified at a hearing in March before the House Oversight subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency — the panel of lawmakers tasked with working in tandem with Elon Musk’s DOGE.
Per the New York Times, the plan is to rescind $1.2bn in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayer backed organization that funds public media including NPR and PBS.
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Trump administration freezes $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University
The Department of Education is freezing about $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University, the agency said on Monday. The announcement comes after the Ivy-league school has decided to fight the White House’s demands that it crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations, including shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” said a member of a department taskforce on combating antisemitism in a statement.
The taskforce said it was freezing $2.2bn in grants and $60m in contract value to Harvard.
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Bernie Sanders called on Americans to “fight back” against Donald Trump’s slide toward authoritarianism, after the White House refused to return a Maryland father it admitted had been wrongly deported to El Salvador.
“Kilmar Abrego García is an innocent man and the father of three. He must not be allowed to rot in an El Salvadorian jail based on lies and defiance of our Constitution. He must be brought home immediately,” wrote the Vermont senator, who is leading a Fighting Oligarchy tour across the country urging Americans to stand up against the administration.
The supreme court said the US had to “facilitate” the return of Abrego García but during a meeting with Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, the president’s advisers said there was no basis to return him. Bukele, whose government is being paid by the US to detain deportees in a notorious Salvadoran prison, said he didn’t have the power to return Abrego García.
“This is just another step forward in Trump’s move toward authoritarianism,” Sanders wrote. “Fight back!”
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The Trump administration escalated its stubborn defiance against securing the release of a man wrongly deported to El Salvador on Monday, advancing new misrepresentations of a US supreme court order.
The supreme court last week unanimously ordered the administration to “facilitate” the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was supposed to have been protected from deportation to El Salvador regardless of whether he was a member of the MS-13 gang.
But at an Oval Office meeting between Trump and El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, Trump deferred to officials who gave extraordinary readings of the supreme court order and claimed the US was powerless to return Abrego Garcia to US soil.
“The ruling solely stated that if this individual at El Salvador’s sole discretion was sent back to our country, we could deport him a second time,” said Trump’s policy chief Stephen Miller, about an order that, in fact, upheld a lower court’s directive to return Abrego Garcia.
Miller’s remarks went beyond the tortured reading offered by the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who also characterized the supreme court order as only requiring the administration to provide transportation to Abrego Garcia if released by El Salvador.
“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s up to them,” Bondi said. “The supreme court ruled that if El Salvador wants to return him, we would ‘facilitate’ it, meaning provide a plane.”
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Harvard says it will not ‘yield’ to Trump demands over $9bn in funding cuts
Harvard University said that it will not comply with a new list of demands from the Trump administration issued last week that the government says are designed to crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations at elite academic institutions.
In a message to the Harvard community, the university president, Alan Garber, vowed that the school would not yield to the government’s pressure campaign. “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said.
The Trump administration said it would review $9bn of federal grants and contracts, including Harvard’s research hospitals, as part of its effort to “root out antisemitism”.
In a letter last week from the government’s antisemitism taskforce, the university was accused of having “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment”.
The Trump administration has also demanded that Harvard ban face masks and close its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which it says teach students and staff “to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes”. The administration also demanded that Harvard cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The administration further asked Harvard to reform its admissions process for international students to screen for students “supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism” – and to report international students to federal authorities if they break university conduct policies.
University faculties are also under the government’s microscope as it has called for “reducing the power held by faculty (whether tenured or untenured) and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship”.
Harvard’s announced resistance to the administration’s demands comes as Trump’s federal government pits itself against several Ivy League universities over intellectual and political freedoms. The dispute has been playing out in the courts over efforts by the administration to deport several postgraduate students holding provisional citizenship or student visas over pro-Palestinian demonstrations that the government alleges were shows of support for terrorism.
Schumer calls for release of wrongly deported Maryland man: 'due process was grossly violated'
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for the immediate release and return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US.
“The law is clear, due process was grossly violated, and the supreme court has clearly spoken that the Trump administration must facilitate and effectuate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He should be returned to the US immediately,” Schumer said. “Due process and the rule of law are cornerstones of American society for citizens and noncitizens alike and not to follow that is dangerous and outrageous. A threat to one is a threat to all.”
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Silky Shah, executive director of the human rights advocacy group Detention Watch Network, said that Donald Trump is taking steps to “normalize the abduction and removal of people to another country without due process”.
“Today’s White House meeting between Trump and Bukele should alarm everyone. Trump is taking monumental yet calculated steps to expand the scope of who can be subjected to arrest, incarceration and deportation, and normalize the abduction and removal of people to another country without due process,” Shah said. “The Trump and Bukele partnership to outsource incarceration to El Salvador is setting a dangerous precedent of total disdain for basic human rights – not only for migrants, but for everyone in the United States, including residents and citizens, and especially Black and brown people who are disproportionately targeted by the US’s unjust criminal legal system.”
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Mohsen Mahdawi's location unknown after Ice arrest in Vermont
The attorney of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green card holder and student at Columbia University who was apprehended by US immigration authorities in Vermont on Monday, said Mahdawi’s whereabouts are unknown.
Mahdawi, who was a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last spring, was arrested by Ice on Monday morning in Colchester, Vermont, while he was attending a naturalization interview, his lawyer said in a statement to the Guardian.
“We have not received confirmation as to his whereabouts despite numerous attempts to locate him,” his attorney, Luna Droubi, said.
“We have filed a habeas petition in the district of Vermont and have sought a temporary restraining order restraining the government from removing him from the jurisdiction or from the country.”
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After Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced he would travel to El Salvador to try to visit his constituent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the White House responded by falsely equating Garcia to an “illegal immigrant gang member”.
In a post on X, the administration wrote to Van Hollen: “Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother, was actually your constituent and she was murdered by an illegal immigrant gang member. Now, you’re now fighting to return one to the United States.”
Morin was raped, beaten and strangled to death in August 2023, and Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a Salvadorian native who illegally entered the United States in 2023 was charged with her death. He has not yet been convicted – a verdict in the case is expected this week.
Abrego Garcia, meanwhile, was not convicted of any crimes and there is no evidence he was a member of a gang. He had, in fact, fled gang violence in his home country when he came to the US in 2011. A judge had granted him a “withholding of removal”, allowing him to stay in the US legally. The administration admitted in court filings that Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador due to an administrative error.
Still, the administration has continued in its rhetoric to cast Abrego Garcia as a criminal.
On Fox News, Trump adviser Stephen Miller contradicted the justice department’s court filing conceding that Abrego Garcia was removed in error, and went as far as to claim: “He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador. This was the right person sent to the right place.”
Updated
The day so far
At a meeting in the Oval Office today, Donald Trump and El Salvador president Nayib Bukele both claimed they didn’t have the power to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the US, despite the Trump administration conceding in court documents that he was deported by mistake and in the face of the supreme court upholding an order to facilitate his return. US attorney general Pam Bondi said the decision was El Salvador’s to make, adding: “If they want to, we would provide a plane.” Baselessly labeling Abrego Garcia a “terrorist”, Bukele refused to order his return, calling the idea “preposterous”, and also ruled out releasing him within El Salvador. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller went further, saying that even if El Salvador did send Abrego Garcia back to the US, the administration would deport him again. “No version of this legally ends with him ever living here,” he said. They all repeatedly referred to Abrego Garcia as an “illegal alien”, which he was not, and Miller insisted that the illegal deportation was not a mistake. Meanwhile, Trump reaffirmed that he is “all for” deporting naturalized American citizens to El Salvador, and urged Bukele to build more Cecot-style prisons so the US could deport “as many as possible”.
It comes as another leader of Columbia University’s campus protest movement against Israel’s war in Gaza was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Palestinian student and green card holder Mohsen Mahdawi, who has been in the US for the last ten years, was detained when he went to attend his citizenship interview. He now faces an order to deport him to the occupied West Bank. Vermont lawmakers Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Becca Balint have issued a statement calling for his immediate release: “This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.” Meanwhile, more than 370 alumni of Georgetown University joined 65 current students there in signing on to a letter opposing immigration authorities’ detention of Dr Badar Khan Suri, a senior postdoctoral fellow. Immigration officials revoked his J-1 student visa, alleging his father-in-law was an adviser to Hamas officials more than a decade ago – and claiming he was “deportable” because of his posts on social media in support of Palestine. The cases are the latest in a string of Ice arrests instigated by the Trump administration targeting pro-Palestinian students and scholars present in the US on visas or green cards.
Also today:
Trump assigned culpability to Vladimir Putin for starting the war in Ukraine. It was buried among his usual claims that Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had somehow “let it happen”, but it was there. He told reporters: “That’s a war that should’ve never been allowed to start. Biden couldn’t stopped it and Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it, and Putin should’ve never started it. Everybody’s to blame.” It comes after Zelenskyy invited Trump to visit Ukraine to see the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion, following comments from the US president that appeared to play down Moscow’s latest deadly attack, the worst on civilians this year, calling it “a mistake” on Sunday.
The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, warned that the chances of a US recession have “increased” in the wake of Trump’s tariffs and that an escalating trade war poses “material risks” for US and global growth. The Wall Street boss said the growing uncertainty over the fallout of US tariffs could spell trouble for companies and consumers and wreak havoc on the economy.
Rome will host a second round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran following the “positive” and “constructive” talks held on Saturday in Oman. Steve Witkoff and lead Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi talked for roughly 45 minutes this weekend - a win for the Trump administration, which had wanted direct rather than indirect negotiations. It comes as Trump reiterated his threat of a potential military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if it does not abandon any drive for a nuclear weapon.
Vermont lawmakers have responded to the Trump administration’s detention of Mohsen Mahdawi. Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Becca Balint said in a statement:
Earlier today, Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, Vermont, walked into an immigration office for what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process. Instead, he was arrested and removed in handcuffs by plain-clothed, armed, individuals with their faces covered. These individuals refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him. This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.
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Goldman Sachs boss says chances of US recession have increased after Trump tariffs
The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, has warned that the chances of a US recession have “increased” in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariffs and that an escalating trade war poses “material risks” for US and global growth.
The Wall Street boss said the growing uncertainty over the fallout of US tariffs could spell trouble for companies and consumers and wreak havoc on the economy.
“We are entering the second quarter with a markedly different operating environment than earlier this year,” he told analysts during an earnings call.
The prospect of a recession has increased, with growing indications that economic activity is slowing down around the world.
The growing uncertainty had made it hard for Goldman clients to make important business decisions, he added.
This uncertainty around the path forward, and fears over the potentially escalating effects of a trade war, have created material risks to the US and global economy.
Solomon’s warning came despite a temporary roll-back by Trump, who declared a 90-day pause on higher-band tariffs for countries outside China last week. The US president also announced plans to exclude some electronic products from steep reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods.
Solomon said he was “encouraged by the US administration’s recent actions to pursue a more gradual policy process that allows for considered negotiations with many countries” but warned markets would continue to be volatile given that “how policy will evolve is still unknown”.
Updated
Ice arrests Palestinian green card holder and student protest leader from Columbia University
Another leader of Columbia University’s campus protest movement against Israel’s war in Gaza has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), The Intercept reports.
Palestinian student and green card holder Mohsen Mahdawi has been in the US for the last ten years and was one of the leaders of the pro-Palestine student protest movement until spring 2024.
In a statement to The Intercept, Mahdawi’s attorney Luna Droubi said:
Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity. He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.”
Mahdawi’s lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition on Monday morning challenging the legality of his detention, alleging the government was violating his statutory and due process rights by punishing him for speech related to Palestine and Israel.
The filing said it appears that Mahdawi was facing deportation under the obscure provision used in other recent cases that gives secretary of state Marco Rubio the right to unilaterally declare immigrants as threats to US foreign policy.
The Intercept reports that Mahdawi sheltered in place for three weeks for fear of being arrested by Ice agents, as his friend and fellow Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil has been.
When he attended an appointment for his US citizenship interview at the Colchester USCIS office, authorities took him into custody. He now faces an order to deport him to the occupied West Bank.
“It’s kind of a death sentence,” Mahdawi said in reference to escalating attacks by the Israeli military and settlers on Palestinians living there. “Because my people are being killed unjustly in an indiscriminate way.”
Mahdawi’s case is the latest in a string of Ice arrests instigated by the Trump administration targeting pro-Palestinian students and scholars present in the US on visas or green cards.
“This is the outcome,” Mahdawi told The Intercept. “I will be either living or imprisoned or killed by the apartheid system.”
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Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem has said she expects more people will be sent to El Salvador.
Noem, speaking to Fox News on Monday ahead of Donald Trump’s meeting with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said:
When I was in El Salvador visiting with President Bukele, we talked about the fact that he would accept more flights, would accept more individuals into Cecot. So I’m looking forward to that partnership continuing.
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Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland will travel to El Salvador this week to visit his constituent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia if he is not released from detention and returned to the United States.
Van Hollen also requested that El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, meet with him during his visit to Washington DC to discuss Abrego Garcia’s return.
“Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia never should have been abducted and illegally deported, and the courts have made clear: the administration must bring him home, now. However, since the Trump Administration appears to be ignoring these court mandates, we need to take additional action,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
That’s why I’ve requested to meet with President Bukele during his trip to the United States, and – if Kilmar is not home by midweek – I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release.
When he met Donald Trump in the Oval Office earlier today, Bukele said he would not return Abrego Garcia to the United States or release him from prison in El Salvador.
Updated
Republican supporters of Ukraine are using the Kremlin’s deadly missile strikes as their latest evidence to convince Donald Trump that he must increase pressure on Vladimir Putin if he wants to reach a ceasefire deal.
Pro-Ukraine lawmakers and aides in the Republican party have carefully navigated Trump’s apparent affinity for Putin and avoided direct intervention in their efforts to shift his support toward Kyiv. But following the Russian strikes during Palm Sunday celebrations in the city of Sumy, advisers and allies have been highly vocal in condemning the attack using language meant to resonate with the US president’s conservative, religious base.
“Putin and peace apparently do not fit in the same sentence,” wrote Lindsey Graham, the Trump-allied senator who has sought to balance his support for Ukraine with his desire to remain on Trump’s good side.
Russia’s barbaric Palm Sunday attack on Christian worshippers in Ukraine seems to be Putin’s answer to efforts to achieve a ceasefire and peace.
The strike came less than 48 hours after Steve Witkoff, the Trump envoy, met with Putin in St Petersburg. The Kremlin called the meeting “extremely useful and very effective”, although there was no indication that the two men achieved concrete results. Witkoff’s gesture of holding has hand over his heart when he saw Putin has been criticised in Washington as excessively fawning and naive.
Joe Biden has condemned the arson attack on Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s home on Sunday, saying he was “disgusted” by the fire that left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
“We are relieved that they are safe and grateful to the first responders,” the former president posted to X on Monday.
There is no place for this type of evil in America, and as I told the Governor yesterday, we must stand united against hatred and violence.
Donald Trump, speaking to reporters from the Oval Office just earlier, also condemned the attack.
Asked about the suspect, Cody Balmer, Trump said he was “probably a wack job” and “not a fan” of his. “A thing like that cannot be allowed to happen,” he added.
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That’s it, the press briefing is over.
Trump reaffirms that he's 'all for' deporting naturalized US citizens who commit violent crimes to El Salvador
Asked if he’s open to deporting naturalized US citizens to El Salvador, Trump says yes, “if they’re criminals”.
That includes them, they’re as bad as anybody. I’m all for it.
He adds the US can do it via El Salvador “for less money and have great security”.
There are “others” the administration is negotiating with too, Trump adds.
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Trump repeats threat to strike Iran militarily if it doesn't give up nuclear programme
Trump says Iran must abandon any drive for a nuclear weapon or face harsh consequences that could include a military strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
“Of course it does,” Trump said when asked if a potential response could include strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Trump says he expects to impose tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals “in the not-too-distant future”.
Trump says he plans to deport 'as many people as possible' who are in the US 'illegally'
Asked how many “illegal criminals” he will export from the US, Trump says he will deport “as many as possible”.
Referring to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison, where the deported people have been sent, Trump says he asked Bukele if he could build more of them. He suggests he would be open to helping El Salvador financially to do so.
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“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,” Marco Rubio adds.
Bukele says he does not plan to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US or within El Salvador
“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I’m not going to do it,” says Bukele. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
He adds he wouldn’t release Abrego Garcia into El Salvador either. “I’m not very fond of releasing terrorists into the country,” he says.
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'No version of this ends with him living here,': Miller says US would deport Abrego Garcia again if he was sent back to US
“The [supreme court] ruling solely 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,” Stephen Miller says.
No version of this legally ends with him ever living here because he is a citizen of El Salvador.
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“No district court has the power to compel the foreign policy function of the United States,” Miller adds.
Stephen Miller says that bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the US would be “to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here”.
The White House deputy chief of staff goes on:
The supreme court stated 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 MS13.
'If they want to, we would provide a plane': Pam Bondi says it's 'up to El Salvador' to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to US
Asked if he’s planning to ask Bukele to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, to the US, Trump defers to Pam Bondi.
The US attorney general doubles down on the administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia was in the country “illegally” and was a gang member:
In 2019 two courts ruled that he was a member of MS13 and he was illegally in our country. Right now, it was additional paperwork had needed to be done. That’s 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, we would ‘facilitate’ it, meaning provide a plane.
'Putin should've never started it': Trump acknowledges Putin started the war in Ukraine before blaming 'everyone'
Asked what “mistake” Russia had made in its attack on Ukraine on Sunday, Trump says the mistake was letting the war happen.
If Biden were competent and if Zelenskyy were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy, he just kept asking for more and more … that war shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
He goes on: “I went four years and Putin wouldn’t even bring it up. As soon as the election was rigged and I wasn’t here, that war started,” he claims.
Trump adds: “Biden should’ve stopped it.” He then blames it on oil prices being too high, before claiming:
This was Biden’s war and I’m trying to stop it.
He doesn’t answer the part of the reporter’s question about giving Vladimir Putin a deadline by which to abide by a ceasefire, but then – contrary to his previous statements – he appears to acknowledge that Putin started the war, before backtracking somewhat, blaming everyone.
That’s a war that should’ve never been allowed to start. Biden couldn’t stopped it and Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it, and Putin should’ve never started it. Everybody’s to blame.
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They’re now having a bizarre conversation about how preventing “men” from competing in “women’s sports” is about protecting women from violence and abuse.
They then both congratulate each other on the number of women in their cabinets.
“We’re very eager to help,” Bukele says.
“You are helping us out, and we appreciate it,” Trump tells Bukele, shaking his hand.
Trump claims the previous administration allowed people to enter the country freely, repeating his usual claim that they came from “prisons and mental institutions”.
“They came from the gangs of Venezuela and other places … hundreds of thousands and even millions of them came,” he claims.
Updated
Bukele acknowledges the US’s “terrorism problem” that he is “happy to help with”.
Trump welcomes his “friend” Bukele, congratulating him on his efforts to tackle crime and the “great job” he’s doing.
Donald Trump and El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele speak to reporters in Oval Office
Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, are speaking together from the Oval Office now. I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
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White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller denies that Maryland man was mistakenly deported to El Salvador
While we wait for the Trump-Bukele press briefing from the Oval Office to begin (they seem to be running behind schedule), Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has denied on Fox News that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, something he called a “hoax” despite the administration conceding the mistake in court documents.
Doubling down on the claim that Abrego Garcia was in the US illegally (he wasn’t), Miller said:
Nobody was mistakenly sent to El Salvador. He was ordered deported from this country in 2019. He’s an illegal alien. His home nation is El Salvador. That is where he belongs. When you have a withholding order, to be clear, that is not pause your deportation. In other words, in the worst-case scenario, it means you get deported to another country.
Where is he from? El Salvador. Where is he a resident and citizen of? El Salvador. Is he here illegally? Yes. Does he have a deportation order? Yes.
A senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official previously stated in court filings that Abrego Garcia was in fact sent to El Salvador as a result of an “administrative error”.
Miller said he is convinced that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, though his family denies that he is affiliated with the gang.
Miller also claimed the supreme court’s endorsement of a federal judge’s directive that US officials must “facilitate” bringing Abrego Garcia back to the US has “been portrayed wrong for 72 hours in the media”.
Speaking to CNN, Miller said the Trump administration will continue deporting people it deems part of foreign terrorist organizations to El Salvador and “there’s no upper limit” to how many can be deported.
Well, as an example, there are thousands of either Tren de Aragua members left in this country or their affiliates and associates. So obviously some portion of those will be going to El Salvador as part of our effort to eradicate this foreign terrorist organization from the United States. But there’s no upper limit to the agreement. We’re going to continue to send foreign terrorist aliens to El Salvador, as well as many other countries.
After repeated questions from reporters, Miller would not say if the administration would be asking El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, to return Abrego Garcia to the US. He then repeated the claim that Abrego Garcia was an “illegal alien” (again, he was in the US legally).
He is El Salvadorian. He is an illegal alien. He was deported to El Salvador. I would welcome anyone here to tell me what country they think we should be sending El Salvador illegal aliens to.
Pressed by a reporter about a judge previously ordering Abrego Garcia not to be deported to El Salvador, Miller continued to defend the administration’s move.
What you’re referring to is an immigration judge. So, that’s article II, not article III, so there’s no article III restraint on his removal. A withholding order or a cancelation of removal order. First of all, as I’m sure you know, does not eliminate the deportation order.
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Pennsylvania arson suspect planned to beat governor with hammer, documents say
A man who authorities said scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion – where he set a fire – had planned to beat the governor, Josh Shapiro, with a hammer if he found him because he hates the politician, according to court documents released on Monday.
The fire left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building early on Sunday. The man, arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said.
During a police interview, authorities said Cody Balmer told them after he was taken into custody that he would have beaten Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he had found him. Balmer had walked an hour from his home to the governor’s residence in Harrisburg, and during the police interview, “Balmer admitted to harboring hatred towards … Shapiro,” according to a police affidavit. The affidavit did not note why Balmer purportedly hated Shapiro.
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The most pressing question facing the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, when he meets with Donald Trump later this morning, is will he return a Salvadoran man whom even the Trump administration admits was sent to El Salvador by mistake?
Per Politico, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was under specific court order not to be deported to El Salvador due to the risk of persecution, but got swept up in the Trump administration’s rush to deport alleged gang members. (CBS News reviewed the 238 cases last month and found precious few have criminal records. None of these men were given due process.) The supreme court last week confirmed lower court decisions and ruled that the administration must “facilitate” Garcia’s return to the United States. After which precisely nothing has happened.
In a court filing published late last night, Politico reports that the Trump administration insisted Garcia’s lawyers have over-interpreted the Scotus ruling, and that to “facilitate” his return means simply allowing it to happen from a domestic point of view. The Trump administration is also claiming the US supreme court has no jurisdiction over what El Salvador does with prisoners, nor over how Trump should act with regard to foreign relations. Which means that in the White House’s view, it’s entirely up to Maga-aligned Bukele whether to send the prisoner back.
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Georgetown alumni and students call for release of scholar detained by immigration authorities
More than 370 alumni of Georgetown University joined 65 current students there in signing on to a letter opposing immigration authorities’ detention of Dr Badar Khan Suri, a senior postdoctoral fellow at the institution’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU).
The letter, dated Sunday and shared with the Guardian, follows the Trump administration’s detention of Khan Suri – a citizen of India – on 17 March. He is being held at an immigration prison in Alvarado, Texas, where his next hearing is scheduled for 6 May.
Immigration officials revoked his J-1 student visa, alleging his father-in-law was an adviser to Hamas officials more than a decade ago – and claiming he was “deportable” because of his posts on social media in support of Palestine.
Khan Suri’s wife, who is of Palestinian descent, is a US citizen.
Citing the ideals of the Catholic religious order that founded Georgetown University in Washington DC, Sunday’s letter said Khan Suri’s “persecution represents a fundamental violation of academic freedom, due process, and the Jesuit values that define” the institution. It adds:
We see his detention clearly for what it is: an attempt to instill fear, silence critical thought, and erode solidarity among students and scholars of varying backgrounds and identities. We reject this attempt and demand his immediate release.
The letter notes immigration authorities arrested Khan Suri at his home in Virginia, and it contends that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided no evidence to support its claims.
A senior Georgetown official, meanwhile, said the university was not provided an explanation for Khan Suri’s detention. Joel Hellman, the dean of Georgetown’s school of foreign service, said in a statement:
We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention.
Sunday’s letter compares Khan Suri’s detention to those of other academic scholars around the US under Donald Trump’s second presidency, including Mahmoud Khalil, Ranjani Srinivasan, and Leqaa Kordia of Columbia University – as well as Rasha Alawieh of Brown University.
Zelenskyy invites Trump to Ukraine to see damage from Russia’s invasion
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited Donald Trump to visit Ukraine to see the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion, while the US president appeared to play down Moscow’s latest deadly attack, the worst on civilians this year, calling it “a mistake”.
International leaders condemned Russia’s strike on the centre of the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which killed 34 people, including two children, and injured more than 100. Two ballistic missiles hit as people made their way to church for Palm Sunday.
Asked about Russia’s attack on civilians, Trump appeared to claim it was accidental and said he was trying to get the war stopped: “I think it was terrible and I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing.”
Trump also implied his predecessor Joe Biden was at fault for the war that began with Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “This war would never have started if I were president. That war is a shame,” he said.
In an interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes, recorded before the attack on Sumy, Zelenskyy urged Trump to see the damage from Russia’s invasion for himself. “Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said.
The Ukrainian president pushed back on a suggestion made by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that Ukraine laid on “propaganda tours” for foreign leaders. “We will not prepare anything. It will not be theatre. You can go exactly where you want, in any city which [has] been under attacks,” Zelenskyy said.
He expressed frustration that senior White House figures continue to repeat Kremlin talking points. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff – who met Putin on Friday in St Petersburg – recently said four Ukrainian regions had “voted” to join Russia, a reference to fake referendums in occupied territory.
“I believe that Russian narratives prevail in the United States. It seems to me that the vice-president is justifying Putin’s actions. This is a change in reality. The Russians are the aggressors, and we are the victims,” Zelenskyy said.
‘The sky won’t fall’: China plays down Trump tariff risks as stock markets rally
China has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “the sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose on Monday amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.
The world’s second-largest economy has diversified its trade away from the US in recent years, according to Lyu Daliang, a customs administration spokesperson, in comments reported by state-owned agency Xinhua.
China has retaliated forcefully to Washington’s tariffs, with 125% levies on US imports against the US’s total of 145% border taxes on goods moving the other way. The trade war has prompted turmoil on financial markets since Trump first revealed tariffs on every country in the world on 2 April. Since then he has partly retreated on the highest levies on most trading partners for at least 90 days, but has doubled down in his spat with China.
The White House offered further relief over the weekend with an exemption from the steepest tariffs for electronics including smartphones, laptops and semiconductors. Trump officials later appeared to walk that back with the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, saying such devices would be “included in the semiconductor tariffs which are coming in probably a month or two”.
Trump said on Sunday night on his social network, Truth Social, that “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’,” highlighting that smartphones are still subject to 20% levies and suggesting they could still rise higher.
However, investors on Monday appeared unconvinced by Trump’s attempts to play down the retreat. Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.2% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 2.2% and the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges climbed by 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively. European stock market indices also jumped in opening trades, with London’s FTSE 100 up by 1.6%, Germany’s Dax up 2.2%, and France’s Cac 40 up 2%.
“The sky won’t fall” for Chinese exports,” China’s Lyu said. “These efforts have not only supported our partners’ development but also enhanced our own resilience.”
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Rome to host second round of US-Iran nuclear talks - reports
A second round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran will be held in Rome, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani was reported as saying on Monday by the country’s main news agency Ansa.
Iran and the US said they held “positive” and “constructive” talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene this week. Axios reports that Steve Witkoff and lead Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi talked for roughly 45 minutes this weekend - a win for the Trump administration, which had wanted direct rather than indirect negotiations.
“We received a request from the interested parties and from Oman, which is playing the role of mediator, and we have given a positive response,” Tajani was quoted by Ansa as saying at the world Expo in Osaka, Japan.
Rome has often hosted these type of talks, Tajani said, and is “prepared to do everything it takes to support all negotiations that can lead to a resolution of the nuclear issue, and to building peace”.
Earlier, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter, Axios reported that the second round of the US-Iranian talks would be held in Rome on Saturday.
Donald Trump, who has threatened military action if no deal is reached on halting Iran’s nuclear program, told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he met with advisers on Iran and expected a quick decision. He gave no further details.
The previous day he had told reporters that the Iran situation was “going pretty good, I think”.
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Donald Trump will meet this morning with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, at 11am ET at the White House.
Referring to the cost of imprisoning the detainees in El Salvador, Trump told reporters on Sunday about Bukele:
I think he’s doing a fantastic job, and he’s taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint.
He’s been amazing. We have some very bad people in that prison. People that should have never have been allowed into our country. People that murdered, drug dealers, some of the worst people on earth are in that prison. And he’s able to do that.
Pressed on whether he had concerns about alleged human rights abuses at the mega-prison, Trump said no. I don’t see it. I don’t see that,” he said.
The US on Saturday deported 10 more people it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, said secretary of state Marco Rubio, who called the alliance between Trump and Bukele “an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere”.
Lawyers and relatives of the people held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the US government assertion that they were. The Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to Tren de Aragua, which it labels a terrorist organization.
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After the Trump administration erroneously deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran immigrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019, to El Salvador, the White House claimed he was involved in human trafficking. But the allegation has not appeared in court records related to his deportation.
As we mentioned in a previous post, Abrego Garcia was deported alongside 238 Venezuelan men alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang who are now held in Cecot, a high-security Salvadoran prison known for its brutal conditions.
A US immigration official conceded in court filings that many of the deportees had no criminal record but maintained they were still dangerous. It adds weight to a charge that Trump and his officials have been ignoring court orders and violating legal norms in his push to remove non-citizens or people whose beliefs are viewed by the White House as counter to US foreign policy interests.
A case in point is that of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers in New York on 8 March and transferred to a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, where he has been detained for over a month.
As my colleague Oliver Laughland notes in this article, an immigration judge ruled on Friday that, despite being a legal US resident, Khalil, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, is eligible to be deported from the US.
Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas”.
Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to deport him for an activity that is protected by the first amendment.
Immigration judge Jamee E Comans ruled on Friday the government’s argument that Khalil’s presence in the US posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.
Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable”. Khalil’s lawyers plan to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and can also pursue an asylum case on his behalf if they choose to.
The 31-year-old’s legal team is asking for Khalil to be released on bail so that he can reunite with his wife, who is due to give birth to their first child this month.
Even though the judge found Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and holds Algerian citizenship, removable on foreign policy grounds, nothing will happen quickly in the immigration proceeding, his attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said.
“Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent,” Van Der Hout said in a statement. The judge gave lawyers for Khalil until 23 April to seek a waiver.
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Trump official who oversaw dismantling of USAID leaves US state department
Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official who played a major role in dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has left the state department, a US official said on Sunday.
Donald Trump’s administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff, as billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” has slashed funding and dismissed contractors across the federal bureaucracy in what it calls an attack on wasteful spending.
“Pete was brought to state with a big mission – to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission,” the official added.
Sources told Reuters that Marocco, who was the director of foreign assistance at the state department, may have been pushed out but they declined to give further explanation.
As recently as Thursday, he held a “listening session” at the state department with nearly two dozen experts to discuss the future of foreign assistance and seek input, according to a source familiar with the event and an invitation to the session seen by Reuters.
You can read the full story here:
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Sony said it will hike the price of its PlayStation 5 console in markets in Europe, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, citing high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates.
The Japanese technology company is raising the cost of a PS5 without a disc drive by 11% to €449.99 ($513.17) from 14 April. The same device will cost £429.99 ($566; €498) in Britain.
The technology industry has been grappling with the possible impact of the US tariffs on its supply chains. Japan was hit with a 24% tariff on its exports to the US on 2 April. Like most of Donald Trump’s new tariffs, they have been paused for 90 days while negotiations between the two countries get under way.
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As we reported in the previous post, the US has sent hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador to be held without trial in a controversial mega-prison known for its harsh conditions. The Cecot prison has drawn ire from human rights organisations and has become central to the promise of the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, to rid his country of crime.
What is the Cecot prison?
In February 2023, El Salvador opened what it claims is Latin America’s biggest prison with capacity for 40,000 inmates. The 23-hectare prison is isolated in a rural region 70 km east of capital San Salvador.
Bukele in November said the prison cost $115m to develop and equip. The president declared a state of emergency in March 2022 that remains in effect and has entailed the arrest of more than 84,000 people.
This includes alleged members of El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, and its rival, Barrio 18.
Government reports put the prison population at 14,500 inmates in August 2024, but a government spokesperson said in March 2025 that the statistic was outdated. A current figure was not disclosed security reasons, the spokesperson said.
Why is the prison controversial?
Cecot has attracted global attention, both positive and negative. Argentine security minister Patricia Bullrich praised the facility in a June 2024 social media post that said: “This is the way. Tough on criminals.”
A US Republican party delegation from the House of Representatives, led by then representative Matt Gaetz, visited the prison a month later.
YouTube personalities have had millions of views for their prison visit videos that highlighted harsh conditions in the prison.
Many human rights organisations have criticised El Salvador’s prisons and especially Cecot. Groups have reported alleged human rights violations like torture, inmate deaths and mass trials.
Bukele said in August that “gang members will spend their entire lives in prison”. Justice minister Gustavo Villatoro vowed in 2023 that officials “will make sure none of those who enter the Cecot ever leave on foot”.
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Trump to meet El Salvador president at White House amid backlash over deportations
Donald Trump is due to meet El Salvador president Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday with the small Central American country having become a focus of the US administration’s mass deportation operation.
Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the US more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants – whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes – and placed them inside the country’s notorious maximum-security gang prison just outside the capital, San Salvador, called Cecot, an acronym for Terrorism Confinement Centre in Spanish.
That has made Bukele, the most powerful leader in El Salvador’s modern history, a vital ally for the Trump administration, which has offered little evidence for its claims that the Venezuelan immigrants were gang members, nor has it released names of those deported.
Bukele won a decisive victory in elections last year after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed security in El Salvador. The alliance between Trump and Bukele “has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere”, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said yesterday. Trump told reporters he thought Bukele was doing a “fantastic job” and “taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint”.
US officials said in court filings on Sunday that they were not obliged to help a Maryland resident get out of prison in El Salvador after he was erroneously deported, despite a supreme court ruling directing the government to “facilitate” his return to the US.
Attorneys for the Trump administration said the high court’s order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego García, 29, meant they should “remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here”, not help extract him from El Salvador.
The Trump administration has acknowledged that García, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019, was deported in March in violation of an immigration judge’s order blocking his removal to El Salvador.
The White House has admitted that Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”. He was one of the 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans the Trump administration has deported to Cecot – which houses both convicted criminals and those still going through El Salvador’s court system – under an agreement between the two countries.
The case highlights the administration’s tensions with federal courts. Several have blocked Trump policies, and judges have expressed frustration with administration efforts – or lack of them – to comply with court orders.
Bukele’s visit comes days after the US deported 10 more people to El Salvador.
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Spain’s economy minister, Carlos Cuerpo, is expected to meet the US treasury secretary on Tuesday as he aims to bolster bilateral ties between the two countries.
The Trump administration has slapped a 10% tariff on imports of most European goods, including olive oil, although it announced a 90-day pause last week on higher, 25% “reciprocal” duties.
Spain is the world’s top exporter of olive oil and also sells important quantities of auto parts, steel and chemicals to the US. The country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced a €14.1bn (£12.2bn; $16bn) government aid package to industry to lessen the domestic impact of Trump’s levies.
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Hedge fund billionaire says US may face ‘worse than a recession’ from Trump tariffs
Maya Yang, a breaking news reporter and live blogger for Guardian US, has filed this story about a warning over the potential consequences of Trump’s erratic economic policies:
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio said that he is worried the US will experience “something worse than a recession” as a result of Donald Trump’s trade policies.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the 75-year-old hedge fund manager said: “I think that right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession. And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well.”
He went on to add: “A recession is two negative quarters of GDP and whether it goes slightly there. We always have those things. We have something that’s much more profound. We have a breaking down of the monetary order. We are going to change the monetary order because we cannot spend the amounts of money.”
Dalio’s comments come in response to a tumultuous week across the global stock markets following the US president’s tariffs policies that include a 145% tariff raise on China. The billionaire also said there are “profound changes in our domestic order … and world order”, comparing current times with the 1930s.
“I’ve studied history and this repeats over and over again. So if you take tariffs, if you take debt, if you take the rising power challenging existing power, if you take those factors and look at the factors, those changes in the orders, the systems, are very, very disruptive. How that’s handled could produce something that is much worse than a recession. Or it could be handled well,” he said.
Dalio, who correctly predicted the 2008 recession, also said the current economic state of the US is “at a juncture”.
“Let’s take the budget. If the budget deficit can be reduced to 3% of GDP, it will be about 7% if things are not changed. If it could be reduced to about 3% of GDP, and these trade deficits and so on are managed in the right way, this could all be managed very well,” he said.
He went on to urge congressional members to take what he calls the “3% pledge”, adding that if they don’t, there will be a supply and demand problem for debt with results that will be “worse than a normal recession”.
You can read the full story here:
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Chinese president in Vietnam to bolster regional economic ties
Chin’s president, Xi Jinping will be welcomed by Vietnam’s president, Luong Cuong, today as he seeks to strengthen economic ties in south-east Asia amid a trade war with Washington that has caused turmoil in global markets.
In an article for the Nhan Dan newspaper, Xi called for more regional cooperation, saying China and Vietnam were “friendly socialist neighbours sharing the same ideals and extensive strategic interests”.
He added that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”, without explicitly mentioning the US.
The visit, planned for weeks, comes as Beijing faces 145% US duties, while Vietnam is negotiating a reduction of threatened US tariffs of 46%. China is Vietnam’s biggest trading partner; Hanoi has a good relationship with both Washington and Beijing.
As my colleague Rebecca Ratcliffe notes in this story, officials in Hanoi were shocked when Vietnam was hit with the 46% tariff, even after various efforts to appease the Trump administration. The tariff, which has been paused, threatens to devastate the country’s ambitious economic growth plan.
Xi will visit Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, from 14 to 15 April, and Malaysia and Cambodia from 15 to 18 April. He last visited Cambodia and Malaysia nine and 12 years ago, respectively.
Xi’s trip to Hanoi, his second in less than 18 months, aims to consolidate relations with a strategic neighbour that has received billions of dollars of Chinese investments in recent years as China-based manufacturers moved south to avoid tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration.
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Trump signals new tariffs on smartphones and computers
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog.
In an announcement made late on Friday evening, Donald Trump’s presidential administration exempted smartphones and computers from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as other “reciprocal” tariffs.
The devices would be excluded from the 10% global tariff that Trump recently imposed on most countries, along with the much heftier import tax on China, in what seemed like a softening of the president’s trade positioning towards Beijing.
US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement. Shares in Apple and chip-maker Nvidia were on course to surge after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for three months.
China’s commerce ministry said the exemption demonstrated the US taking “a small step toward correcting its erroneous unilateral practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’’”, and suggested the American administration cancel the whole punitive tariff regime.
However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.
“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC. “These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”
Amid the confusion over the White House’s tariff policy, Trump said he would provide more details on his administration’s approach on semiconductor tariffs later today.
But he suggested any tariff exemption for China-made smartphones would be short-lived, writing on his social media: “Nobody is getting off the hook for unfair trade balances.” Stay with us throughout the day as we bring you the latest tariff developments and other US politics stories.
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