Trump tells El Salvador president to build more jails as 'home growns are next' (2025)

During a meeting with President Nayib Bukele on Monday Donald Trump urged him to build more jails as he wanted "to go a step further" and start sending American criminals to to Salvadoran prisons

President Donald Trump candidly confessed on Monday that he would "like to go a step further" and begin deporting American criminals to an El Salvadoran prison. The startling revelation was made by the president during a meeting with President Nayib Bukele.

In the footage, Trump is seen responding to a journalist's query about who would foot the bill for the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The ), the 78-year-old president said that the U.S. would contribute towards the cost of the facilities.

He praised the centres as a "great" and "strong facility", adding that "they don't play games." It was at this point that the U.S. president expressed his desire "to go a step further."

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Trump continued, "I said to Pam, I don't know what the laws are, we always have to obey the laws. But we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, hit elderly ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat when they are not looking, they are absolute monsters," he declared. "I'd like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country."

Trump's public musings about potentially deporting Americans follow a video of him whispering something to Bukele that surfaced on social media. In the brief 29-second clip shared on Twitter, Trump and Bukele can be heard exchanging hushed words, reports the Mirror US.

In the video, Trump can be heard stating, "Home-growns are next. The home-growns." He further suggests that Bukele needs to "gotta build about five more places" as the existing facilities "were not big enough."

These remarks were made while Trump was giving Bukele a tour of the White House. The comments sparked laughter, with Bukele assuring Trump that there "was enough room."

One Twitter user expressed concern, saying, "He's going to apply this to anyone he doesn't like," Another person added, "It didn't start with gas chambers the first time around either". A third penned: "This idea, in and of itself, should be an impeachable offense. It is crazy we have a president suggesting he can imprison Americans in another country."

A supporter attempted to defend the president, arguing that he had misheard the question. They said: "Listen to the whole exchange on video, obvious he did not hear the question properly. He was responding to a scenario where an illegal enters the country. At one point he even says 'when they come here', obviously indicating that he did not hear the question."

Following the release of the video, a legal expert has offered their opinion on whether Trump has the legal power to deport Americans. "It is illegal to expatriate U.S. citizens for a crime," Lauren-Brooke Eisen from the Brennan Center for Social Justice in New York, informed the Associated Press.

Eisen suggested that even if the administration attempted to relocate federal prisoners to CECOT, arguing they're already incarcerated, it could potentially violate the First Step Act. This is a law that Trump himself advocated for and signed in 2018.

The provision mandates that the government strive to place federal inmates as close to their homes as possible to facilitate family visits. It also requires the transfer of anyone housed more than 500 miles from their home to a nearer facility.

Moreover, dispatching Americans to CECOT could be perceived as infringing on their Constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. One of CECOT's unique selling points is its notably harsher conditions compared to US prisons.