The MAGA universe is cheering El Salvador’s president for supposedly getting a Democratic senator from Maryland right where he wanted him.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen had flown to El Salvador earlier in the week to try to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration has admitted was deported to the notorious CECOT mega-prison because of an “administrative error.”
After initially being denied a meeting with Abrego Garcia, whose wife and 5-year-old son are U.S. citizens, Van Hollen was able to speak with him on Thursday.
Democrats cheered the meeting, but according to MAGA, it was all part of an elaborate game of chess on the part of President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.
“Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone. GRANDSTANDER!!!” Trump wrote Friday morning on Truth Social.
Van Hollen shared a photo on Thursday that showed him sitting at a table in a restaurant speaking to Abrego Garcia, who was wearing a checkered shirt and baseball cap.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar,” he wrote in a post on X. “Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love.”
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 18, 2025
The photo came as a relief to many social media users, who have become used to seeing images of CECOT prisoners packed onto bare metal cells with their heads shaved wearing spartan white prison uniforms.
Inmates are kept in their cells 23 and a half hours a day and are not allowed recreation, visitation, or education.
Abrego Garcia and about 240 other men from El Salvador and Venezuela were sent there without warning on March 15. None of the men—including Abrego Garcia—have been allowed to speak to their families or lawyers.
“He’s alive” trended on X Thursday night as people reacted to Van Hollen’s proof-of-life photo.
But Bukele also trolled Van Hollen with three additional, carefully stage-managed photos of the Maryland senator and Abrego Garcia.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” Bukele captioned the photos.
In Bukele’s photos, Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia are sitting at a table on an outdoor patio with a wall of foliage in the background. In front of each man is a cup of coffee, glass of water, and transparent drink in a cocktail glass with a sugar rim and maraschino cherry.
“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” he wrote in a follow-up post.
And finally: “I love chess.”
I love chess.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 18, 2025
Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino both endorsed the chess post, while MAGA influencers cheered Bukele for supposedly ensnaring Van Hollen.
“Ok you and President Trump are up to something! You did this thing with the gang member on purpose,” a MAGA user with 87,000 followers wrote in a reply to a post from Bukele.
“SHOUTOUT to @nayibbukele for exposing Senator Chris Van Hollen for clearly supporting illegal aliens,” wrote a MAGA account with 1 million followers.
“Well done,” wrote a MAGA user with 342,000 followers.
Several others wrote, “Checkmate.”
Other members of Trumpland tried to spin Van Hollen’s visit as “proof” of Democrats’ criminal sympathies.
“Chris Van Hollen has firmly established Democrats as the party whose top priority is the welfare of an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist. It is truly disgusting,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai wrote in a post on X.
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller also shared a photo of Van Hollen shaking hands with Abrego Garcia and wrote, “We have one party for Americans. One party for criminal illegal aliens.”
The administration has repeatedly called Abrego Garcia a gang member and a terrorist, while only offering third-hand, uncorroborated evidence to support the claims.
As the case has played out in court over the past few weeks, the Department of Justice has not presented any evidence in court showing gang affiliations. The government has “abandoned” its position that he was a “danger to the community,” a federal appeals court found.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on April 10 that the U.S. government must “facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.” The Trump administration has refused to provide any information about what steps it’s taking, leading to a stinging rebuke Thursday from a federal appeals court.
Republicans are nevertheless hoping to make the issue a political loser for Democrats by framing it as a question of illegal immigration and gang violence as opposed to one of constitutional rights and lawlessness, Politico reported.
They’d also rather constituents be reading headlines about Abrego Garcia than the stock market plummeting.
But Republicans can’t escape the economy, former Obama aide and podcaster Jon Favreau argued during Friday’s episode of Pod Save America. Voters can see their grocery bills going up and their retirement accounts going down.
And even Republican lawmakers are facing a backlash from constituents who are angry about Trump’s failure to bring Abrego Garcia home.
“Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?” a middle-aged voter asked Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa during a town hall this week.
“Yeah!” other members of the crowd called out, clapping.
“I’m not going to,” Grassley replied.
“Why not?”
“Well because that’s not a power of Congress,”
“The Supreme Court said to bring him back,” the man replied. “I’m pissed.”
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