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Hot Mic Reveals Trump Plans to Create U.S. Gulags in El Salvador

4 min readApr 16, 2025

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Found this in my inbox this morning. It’s part of a blog post from Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From an American (on Substack and Facebook) about the meeting in the Oval Office of U.S. President Donald Trump and El Salvador President/Dictator Nayib Bukele.

Bukele was livestreaming the event on his official X account and wearing a lapel microphone as he and Trump walked into the Oval Office, so Trump’s pre-meeting private comments were audible in the video Bukele posted. “We want to do homegrown criminals next…. The homegrowns.” Trump told Bukele. “You gotta build about five more places.” Bukele appeared to answer, “Yeah, we’ve got space.” “All right,” Trump replied.

Rather than being appalled, the people in the room — including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi — erupted in laughter. — Heather Cox Richardson

During the meeting, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked President Trump why he wasn’t bringing home Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador — despite a judge’s explicit order to bring him back.

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Patsy Fergusson
Patsy Fergusson

Written by Patsy Fergusson

Tree hugger. Tour guide. Top Writer. Feminist. Newly-baptized Bay swimmer. Editor of Fourth Wave. https://medium.com/fourth-wave

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