El Salvador's Bukele says US cannot 'free criminals and think crime is going to go down magically'
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss how the two countries could coordinate on reducing violent crime in the United States.
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday that he has 350 million Americans to "liberate" by ending crime and terrorism in the United States.
"We know that you have a crime problem and a terrorism problem that you need help with. And we're a small country, but we can help," Bukele said. "We actually turned the murder capital of the world -- that was [what] the journalists called it – the murder capital of the world to the safest country in the Western Hemisphere."
"And I like to say that we actually liberated millions," Bukele said, with the line drawing praise from Trump.
"Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate," Bukele told Trump. "You cannot just, you know, 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, and it can be done."
The Trump administration has been coordinating with Bukele on deportation flights, sending hundreds, including alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
Trump's 2024 campaign was critical of the Biden administration's catch-and-release border policies, as well as liberal bail reform laws in many Democratic jurisdictions that forced police to release suspects back onto the streets, often to reoffend.
Trump on Monday derided the "Democratic establishment," championing how the country would now be run by "common sense" after his election.
"Do you allow your men in women's sports? Do you allow men to box women?" Trump asked Bukele, referencing how the left has pushed for biological men to compete in women's sports.
The president of El Salvador remarked, "That's violence."
President Donald Trump greets El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele as he arrives at the West Wing of the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington.? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
"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."
A decade or so ago, Bukele said, the women's rights movement pushed to have laws on the books to prevent men from abusing women, arguing that now the "same people are trying to backtrack."
"We're big on protecting women," Bukele said, noting that most of his Cabinet members present in the Oval Office with him are women, and joking, "they're not DEI hires or anything."
Trump championed women in his own Cabinet, naming Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
"The most powerful woman in the world, according to magazines," Trump said of Wiles. "I think she probably is."
Noem, who visited the CECOT last month, thanked Bukele for his partnership, saying Trump has sent a "powerful message of consequences" to keep criminals, rapists, murderers, gang members and terrorists out of the U.S.
President Donald Trump waves as he greets El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington.? (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Trump said the Biden administration allowed people to "come freely into our country" from South America, Africa, Asia and "rough parts of Europe," claiming many of those entering came from prisons and mental institutions, as well as gangs.
"This was allowed by a man who -- what he did to our country is just unbelievable," Trump said of former President Joe Biden. "So we're straightening it out. We're getting them out. But what they did and what that party did to our country, open borders, anybody could come in. As soon as I heard that, I said, ‘every prison is going to be emptied out into our country.’ That's what happened. And we're straightening it out."
Asked how many illegal immigrants his administration would export to El Salvador, Trump said, "as many as we can get out of our country that were allowed in here by incompetent Joe Biden through open borders."
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Trump did not rule out exporting U.S. citizens or fully naturalized immigrants who commit violent crimes in the U.S. to El Salvador, but he did say Bondi and the Justice Department were still "studying the law" on that potential course of action.
"They're as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones, too. And I'm all for it because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security," Trump said. "I'm talking about really bad people."
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