MEXICO CITY — Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president and self-styled “world’s coolest dictator,” is scheduled to visit President Trump at the White House on Monday.
He becomes the first Latin American leader to receive an official invitation to the Oval Office since Trump took office.
Bukele is one of Trump’s most crucial regional allies, and no one has embraced his anti-immigration policies as enthusiastically.
With Bukele’s support, the Trump administration has detained and deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan and Salvadoran gang members back to El Salvador in recent weeks.
The inaugural deportation flight to El Salvador last month, along with transfers to the country’s infamous mega prison, was meticulously choreographed and highlighted in a polished video shared by Bukele on social media.
Since then, more deportation flights have taken off, including the latest on Sunday, despite ongoing concerns regarding transparency, due process, and claims that numerous imprisoned individuals lack any gang affiliation.
So, what do we know about Bukele, and why has he been so readily embraced by the Trump administration and granted a White House audience?
The rise of the Bukele doctrine
Bukele was first elected president in 2019 after a campaign centered on fighting corruption.
In 2022, he declared a state of emergency to combat rampant gang crime and soaring homicide rates.
The law, which is still in effect, has led to the arrest of about 85,000 individuals, according to Human Rights Watch.
Shockingly, only around 1,000 of those arrested have been convicted, with many innocent people reportedly caught up in the crackdown.
“Under Bukele, El Salvador has become the newest autocracy in the Americas,” stated Noah Bullock, executive director at Cristosal, a Salvadoran human rights NGO.
Despite widespread condemnation for human rights abuses, Bukele has gained admiration from many in the Americas, including President Trump, for successfully lowering homicide rates in a country that had long suffered with one of the highest murder rates globally.
Homicides reportedly dropped from over 2,000 in 2019 to just 114 last year.
Just last week, the State Department upgraded El Salvador’s travel safety rating to a coveted Level 1, a recognition that did not escape Bukele’s notice, as he shared the news on Twitter multiple times.
The advisory stated: “Exercise normal precautions in El Salvador.
Gang activity has decreased over the last three years.”
The Level 1 rating is held by only a select few Latin American nations and is higher than the Level 2 travel advisory for countries such as the U.K., Sweden, and France.
“Politicians throughout the region trying to look for quick solutions for the violence caused by organized crime are attempting to adopt the Bukele discourse,” remarked Juanita Goebertus Estrada, director of the Americas Division at HRW.
All of these factors have contributed to bolstering Bukele’s domestic approval ratings, which hover around 80%.
He achieved a landslide victory in the 2024 elections, though Bullock notes that many citizens are too fearful to voice public opposition.
A MAGA alliance
Bukele has garnered a following among MAGA Republicans, with Donald Trump Jr. attending his second-term inauguration in June 2024.
The MAGA base cheered him on during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington in February last year.
The Trump administration has also formed close diplomatic ties with El Salvador.
Both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem chose to visit the country as part of their inaugural overseas trips.
“El Salvador is the only country, at least in Central America, that has shown 100% willingness to meet all the requirements set by the United States,” stated Ana María Méndez Dardón, Central America director at the Washington Office on Latin America.
This cooperation has infamously extended to the repatriation of hundreds of Venezuelan and Salvadoran migrants who have been accused of alleged gang involvement to Bukele’s infamous mega prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
This deportation strategy involves invoking the obscure 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target supposed members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang.
The deportations have faced widespread condemnation and are under heavy scrutiny in U.S. courts, with HRW labeling them as “forced disappearances” attributed to a facility recognized for its abusive conditions.
What’s on the table at the White House?
During their meeting on Monday, both leaders are expected to address further collaboration on migration, tariffs, and the possibility of detaining “dangerous” American criminals in El Salvador.
“These would be heinous violent criminals who have repeatedly violated our nation’s laws, and these are violent repeat offenders on American streets,” stated Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary.
However, she clarified that the viability and legality of this policy are still under consideration.
The Supreme Court has provided a mixed response to Trump’s El Salvador deportation strategy, permitting further deportations under the 1798 law on April 7th while also ruling that deportees must receive due process.
The court also directed the administration to “facilitate” the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father of three mistakenly deported to El Salvador despite being granted protections by an immigration judge due to concerns regarding potential gang violence he could face there.
image source from：https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/nx-s1-5361119/the-worlds-coolest-dictator-heads-to-the-white-house
