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El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, April 14, 2025.
The leaders attacked trans women in sports while ignoring court orders to return a wrongly deported Maryland man.
During a freewheeling Oval Office appearance Monday with El Salvador’s self-declared “world’s coolest dictator,” President Donald Trump once again turned to transphobia as political red meat — and found a willing partner in President Nayib Bukele, who is visiting Washington, D.C.
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The two hardline leaders were supposed to be discussing their controversial deportation pact, which has sent hundreds of migrants — many without criminal charges — to El Salvador’s sprawling CECOT prison. But what followed was a chaotic press availability filled with anti-trans rhetoric, open defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and a disturbing window into the Trump administration’s evolving immigration agenda.
Related: Bad Wisconsin cop’s tattoo claim helped deport gay asylum-seeker to Salvadoran prison hellscape: report
Trump abruptly pivoted from immigration to attacking transgender women in sports, asking Bukele: “Do you allow men to play in women’s sports? Do you allow men to box your women and box? Because I know you have a lot of boxers.”
“That’s violence,” Bukele replied, smiling as he acknowledged Trump’s setup.
Trump went on to repeat long-debunked claims about trans women dominating women’s sports. “Now they have a guy come up — ping — the whole thing is crazy,” Trump said of weightlifting competitions before seemingly admitting he prefers to save the subject of transgender rights as political fuel. “I don’t like talking about it because I want to save it for just before the next election.”
LGBTQ+ advocates immediately condemned the remarks.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told The Advocate the exchange showed how disconnected Trump’s rhetoric is from the reality of most Americans.
“This kind of rhetoric is completely disconnected from the lives and values of everyday Americans,” Ellis said in a statement. “At the end of the day, we all want the same things — belonging, peace, and the ability to take care of ourselves and our families. That’s what matters. That’s what unites us. The focus should be on the real issues that are impacting Americans right now — not manufactured outrage or divisive distractions.”
The anti-trans remarks were just one part of an Oval Office appearance that highlighted the growing alliance between Trump and Bukele — built not only on shared culture war politics but on a brutal approach to immigration and incarceration.
At the center of their meeting was the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father of three who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador under Trump’s revival of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Related: Gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker ‘disappeared’ to Salvadoran mega-prison under Trump order, Maddow reveals
Despite a unanimous Supreme Court ruling last week ordering the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, administration officials have said they can’t control what a sovereign nation does with its citizens. Asked whether he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., Bukele scoffed. “The question is preposterous,” he said. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”
Abrego Garcia has never been charged with a crime. His attorney says he is not a gang member, and U.S. immigration courts had granted him protections from removal.
Attorney General Pam Bondi downplayed the wrongful deportation as a “paperwork” error. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claimed — without evidence — that returning Abrego Garcia would be akin to “kidnapping” a Salvadoran citizen.
Meanwhile, Trump openly floated the idea of expanding deportations to include U.S. citizens, saying he would like to send “homegrown criminals” to Bukele’s prisons.
The Trump administration is reportedly paying the Salvadoran government $6 million to detain migrants in CECOT — a prison notorious for torture, abuse, and mass incarceration without trial.
The Abrego Garcia case is not the only one drawing scrutiny. As The Advocate has reported, the Trump administration has used the same deportation pipeline to forcibly remove LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers — including 23-year-old Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela who vanished into CECOT in March.
Hernández Romero was removed from the U.S. without a court hearing or deportation order after a private ICE contractor flagged his tattoos — the words “Mom” and “Dad” above crowns — as gang-related.
His attorney, Lindsay Toczylowski, said the accusation was baseless. “These are tattoos that have a plausible explanation because he worked in the beauty pageant industry,” she told 60 Minutes.
Hernández Romero passed his initial asylum screening and was awaiting a court date when he was suddenly deported. ICE failed to present him at his hearing.
Related: Queer Venezuelan deported and 'disappeared' over mischaracterized tattoos, lawyer says
Rachel Maddow first reported the case on her MSNBC show, sharing images of Hernández Romero in CECOT — where he reportedly told guards, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist.”
The deportation sparked national outrage and renewed concerns about the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to bypass due process and target vulnerable people.
Advocates have warned that LGBTQ+ people detained in CECOT — a facility widely condemned by human rights organizations — face extreme risk of abuse and violence.
While Trump and Bukele spun narratives about crime and sports in the Oval Office, advocates pointed to the reality: transgender athletes have long participated in sports under established rules and make up a tiny fraction of all athletes.
There is no credible evidence that trans women have an unfair advantage. What’s more, states that allow trans youth to play sports see higher participation rates for girls.
Policies excluding trans athletes have led to bullying, harassment, and even invasive gender checks targeting girls and women who don’t conform to narrow standards of femininity.
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