Sunday, April 6, 2025

What did Donald Trump do today?

He said he should be able to ship Americans off to foreign torture camps.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he returned from a four-day golf weekend, Trump said that he would be "very happy" if he could have Americans incarcerated in a notoriously brutal foreign prison.

The prison in question is known as CECOT, and it is notorious for its deliberate harshness. It is overcrowded by design, and prisoners are subject to abuse and torture. It has no educational or rehabilitative programs, and inmates are used a source of slave labor for programs that benefit the state. 

While the American prison system has its issues, virtually everything about CECOT would be illegal in the United States and a violation of the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment—which seems to have been Trump's point.

In theory, CECOT was built to combat gang violence. But it has also been used to punish the Salvadoran president's political enemies, and serves as a threat to those who would oppose the man who refers to himself as "the world's coolest dictator." 


Also tonight, a CBS News report found that 75% of the supposed Venezuelan "gang members" Trump had deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order were not accused or suspected of any crime, much less affiliation with gangs. Trump has ignored court orders to have them returned, claiming that he has no authority over what El Salvador does with people in its custody.

Trump himself is a convicted felon, though he escaped incarceration for the criminal trial that was concluded before his second term began.

Why does this matter?

  • There's a difference between being "tough on crime" and endorsing torture, enslavement, and exile.
  • It's bad if the only people a president ever speaks well of are dictators.
  • Felons who live in glass prisons shouldn't throw stones.
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