The worse Trump gets, the better it gets

The worse Trump gets, the better it gets.

I’ll explain in a minute.

In the case of “Maryland father” Kilmar Abrego Garcia, these are the facts we can agree on:

He was sent to El Salvador’s max security prison CECOT, reportedly one of the most brutal anyway.

We know that is accurate because the Trump administration bragged that it sent him there.

He was sent there due to an “administrative error.”

We know that is accurate because the Trump administration admitted it.

A lower court ordered the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and the U.S. Supreme Court backed his release “but stopped short of saying a lower court judge could order the administration to ‘effectuate’ his return,” according to reporting in the Washington Post.

So there is some daylight between the two courts’ language, but also fundamental agreement that he must be returned.

Why must he be returned here, even though he is from El Salvador?

Because in 2019 a U.S. immigration judge authorized a withholding of removal order, prohibiting the government from sending him to El Salvador, where he faced alleged retribution from a gang that extorted his family and tried to recruit him.

Instead, he fled. The Trump administration did not appeal the judge’s decision, which came after he had an immigration hearing after being detained by ICE.

Those are the indisputable facts. 

Now we walk out onto the thin ice.

Trump ran, basically, as an anti-crime, law and order candidate, except, of course, for the laws he was charged with breaking. And he is a convicted felon, with a large lake of sympathy for other  convicted felons, such as the massive number of January 6 rioters he pardoned.

He has much less sympathy for Abrego Garcia, who is convicted of nothing. The government accuses him of being a MS-13 gang member, but has produced no evidence.

Let’s be clear — I direct this to MAGA heads — I am not saying Abrego Garcia is not a gang member. I am saying under the American system of justice, the prosecution is required to prove guilt. Not just accuse, but prove. Like with, you know, evidence.

That is called due process and it recently was endorsed by all nine Supreme Court Justices, including the six conservatives.

Let me break it down: Everyone accused is entitled to a hearing — innocent and guilty, citizen and alien, even the illegal ones. That is the law derived from the Constitution, whether or not you like it.

You can’t argue it. It is indisputable fact.

Here is what is not fact: When El Salvador President Nayib Bukeke (who has called himself the “coolest dictator in the world”) said he was powerless to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. He could do it with a twitch of an eyebrow.

For his part, President Donald J. Trump declined to ask his buddy Nayib to send Abrego Garcia back, with the administration reaching the Himalayan heights of  mendacity with its claim that would be “kidnapping” a Salvadoran citizen. 

Let’s go back a few steps.

The administration admits it made a mistake.

When responsible adults make a mistake, they move to fix it.

Example: How quickly Trump paused tariffs when he saw them tanking the economy. It was a mistake and he fixed it. He called it being “flexible.” 

His economic policy is so flexible it ought to be called Slinky.

Back to Abrego Garcia.

Trump himself, more than once, has said he will follow court orders. He said it most recently aboard Air Force One. 

Two courts have ordered him to get Abrego Garcia back.

Since Trump never admits making a mistake himself, I suggest he call Abrego Garcia a “hostage“ and then cut a deal with Bukeke to release him. Great photo op.

Another Trump triumph! Winning!

—-

Since Trump’s election, I have been predicting two things:

1- Republicans will lose the House in 2026, thus tying Trump’s hands and lame-ducking him.

2- Trump’s certainty will be shattered that the conservative-dominated Supreme Court will back all his insane ideas.

The conservatives are strict constructionists, textualists. They believe the Constitution means what it says. They are people of the book.

When Trump crosses the line, they will reel him in.

Not in every case, of course, but in the ones where he clearly thumbs his nose at what the Founders expected. They have done that in a few cases already.

The worse he gets, the better it will get — meaning as Trump smashes through the guard rails of law and civility, the more the resistance to him. In the courts, and in the polls.

Most Americans are law-abiding, and will not tolerate a political party that is not.

And I direct this to my liberal friends, no, it is not just wishful thinking.