Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president agrees to house US criminals in his country’s jails
Mark Schiefelbein / POOL AP / AFP
(WASHINGTON) — United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and said the Central American nation has agreed to not only take in deported foreign nationals who committed crimes — but also jailed American citizens and permanent residents.
Rubio called the agreement “an act of extraordinary friendship,” on Monday.
“[Bukele] has agreed to accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a criminal, from any nationality — be they MS-13 or Tren de Araqua — and house them in his jails,” Rubio declared. “He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of U.S. citizens and legal residents.”
Rubio called the deal the “most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world” and said, “no country has ever made an offer of friendship such as this.”
“We are profoundly grateful. I spoke to President Trump about this earlier today. And it’s just one more sign of what an incredible friend we have here in President Bukele and in the people of El Salvador,” Rubio said after they met for more than two-and-a-half hours.
“More details will be forthcoming” about the agreement struck between the United States and El Salvador, said Rubio, before taking an opportunity to praise Bukele’s leadership — describing his polarizing clampdown on El Salvador’s security as “difficult decisions” that had to be made.
President Trump has previously mused about sending repeated offenders abroad, even if they are lawfully in the United States. The president will now need to clear several legal hurdles, given that the Eighth Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments,” broadly considered to include exile.
(WASHINGTON) — In a scathing letter Tuesday, Caroline Kennedy warned senators about her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him a “predator.”
The letter was sent to lawmakers ahead of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing for the role of secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which is scheduled for Wednesday.
Caroline Kennedy – a former U.S. ambassador to both Australia and Japan and the last living child of former President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle – called the role “an enormous responsibility, and one that Bobby is unqualified to fill.”
Caroline Kennedy wrote that she feels “an obligation to speak out” now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated for “a position that would put him in charge of the health of the American people.”
“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together,” she wrote in the letter, in part. “It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.”
Caroline Kennedy said she watched family members follow her cousin “down the path of drug addiction,” and shared disturbing details of his alleged behavior with animals.
“His basement, his garage, and his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence,” she wrote.
She also accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of being “addicted to attention and power,” and said he “preys on the desperation of parents of sick children – vaccinating his own children while building a following by hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”
Caroline Kennedy further accused her cousin of “[continuing] to grandstand off my father’s assassination, and that of his own father,” saying former President Kennedy “would be disgusted” by his actions.
“The American health care system, for all its flaws, is the envy of the world,” Caroline Kennedy wrote. “Its doctors and nurses, researchers, scientists, and caregivers are the most dedicated people I know. Every day, they give their lives to heal and save others.”
“They deserve better than Bobby Kennedy – and so do the rest of us. I urge the Senate to reject his nomination,” she concluded.
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, President of Mexico, speaks during the National Agreement for the Human Right to Water and Sustainability, held at the Ecological Park of Xochimilco. on November 25, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo credit should read Carlos Santiago/ Pixelnews/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday. The call took place two days after he announced that he planned to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico on his first day in the White House.
Trump called the conversation “wonderful” and “very productive” in a post on Truth Social, saying the two leaders talked about the border control and how to combat the flow of illegal drugs — but these topical conversation points may be the only things on which the two could entirely agree.
Earlier in the day, Sheinbaum confirmed that she had spoken with Trump, and that they did discuss the shared border, writing on X: “I had an excellent conversation with President Donald Trump. We discussed Mexico’s strategy on the migration phenomenon and I shared that caravans are not arriving at the northern border because they are being taken care of in Mexico.”
But Trump went further, proclaiming that the Mexican president “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
In a follow-up post, he added, “Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately. THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA.”
Sheinbaum then appeared to directly contradict the president-elect’s account of the conversation, posting on X: “In our conversation with President Trump, I explained to him the comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to address the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights. Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border. We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.”
Trump and Sheinbaum both also concur that they spoke about stemming the flow of illegal drugs, including fentanyl, into the U.S.
Sheinbaum wrote on X that they “discussed strengthening collaboration on security issues within the framework of our sovereignty and the campaign we are carrying out in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl.”
And following their call, Trump announced on Truth Social that part of his plan to address the fentanyl epidemic in the U.S. will be a large advertising campaign.
“I will be working on a large scale United States Advertising Campaign, explaining how bad Fentanyl is for people to use – Millions of lives being so needlessly destroyed,” Trump wrote. “By the time the Campaign is over, everyone will know how really bad the horror of this Drug is.”
The call was arranged after Trump this week announced plans to slap tariffs on Mexico, as well as Canada and China, in an effort to stem illegal border crossings and stop the flow of drugs entering the U.S.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum fired back, warning him not to start a trade war that she said would hurt the U.S.
“President Trump, it is not with threats nor with tariffs that migration and drug consumption in the U.S. will be dealt with,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference, reading from a letter she’d written to Trump. “These great challenges require cooperation and mutual understanding.”
She also disputed Trump’s claims about migration and drugs, and she blamed the U.S. for Mexico’s drug war — pointing to U.S. consumption and American guns.
“We don’t make guns, we don’t consume synthetic drugs. Those killed by crime to meet the demand for drugs in your country are unfortunately our responsibility,” she said.
The swift rebuke was a departure from Sheinbaum’s mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had a chummy relationship with Trump during his first term.
When Trump similarly threatened tariffs on Mexico and to shut the border in 2018, the two men negotiated a deal to beef up Mexican immigration enforcement with U.S. support, reducing the numbers at the border — and Trump dropped his threats.
(WASHINGTON) — Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has helped fundraise for Donald Trump, is the president-elect’s choice to lead the Department of Treasury.
Bessent has advised Trump on economic policy and has been a frequent presence at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the last two weeks.
The announcement for the job, which needs Senate approval, was supposed to come earlier but had been stalled due to intense infighting among Trump’s top advisers — including transition co-chair Howard Lutnick — about who should get the job.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists. Scott’s story is that of the American Dream,” Trump said in his announcement statement.
Bessent, 62, has been involved in financial firms for over 35 years.
Born and raised in Conway, South Carolina, Bessent graduated from Yale University in 1984.
After graduating from Yale in 1984, Bessent went to work for different investment companies.
He worked for Democratic megadonor George Soros from 1991 to 2000, where he was a managing partner. Later, he returned to Soros Fund Management (SFM) – the private investment firm that manages assets for the Open Society Foundations – as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015.
Bessent has also been associated with Brown Brothers Harriman, The Olayan Group, Kynikos Associates and Protégé Partners.
Economists from both sides of the aisle believe Bessent is a middle-of-the-road pick.
Bessent made large donations supporting Trump and served as an economic adviser. He has also made several television appearances on behalf of the president-elect.
Bessent spoke at a conference run by the Manhattan Institute in June, where he laid out a three-point economic plan that he intended to propose to Trump.
“Well, I might even advise him to campaign on three arrows,” Bessent said. “It would be 3% real economic growth, and how do you get that? Through deregulation, more U.S. energy production, slaying inflation and forward guidance on competence for people to make investments — so that the private sector can take over from this bloated government spending.”
Bessent, who is gay, resides in New York City with his partner and two children.
As the highly anticipated treasury pick lingered, Elon Musk threw his support behind Howard Lutnick over Scott Bessent.
“Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback. My view [for what it’s worth] is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change,” Musk wrote on X. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”