Miller threw the train into reverse yesterday by claiming on Fox News there was no administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was correctly deported. Stephen Miller is not a lawyer, should he really be Trump's mouthpiece on legal issues? From yesterday's news:
But on Monday, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s top domestic policy adviser, abruptly changed course. He declared on Fox News that Mr. Abrego Garcia had not in fact been wrongfully deported.
“He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador,” Mr. Miller said, adding, “This was the right person sent to the right place.”
The sudden turnabout was remarkable not only because Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, contradicted previous assertions by some within the administration, but also because he appeared to go against the findings of the Supreme Court.
Will Democratic Senator Chris Von Hollan make any headway by flying to El Salvador to try and negotiate with Bukele officials there? I doubt it.
I am still just sitting back and watching Trump get his ya-yas out. Democrats are pretty much irrelevant at this point. Much praise to Bernie Sanders for going on tour to rally Dems, but they are not the reason Trump won in 2024. His nationalistic vision, including its bigotry against refugees and immigrants resonated with American voters. It's your neighbors and fellow Americans -- especially the under-informed and the billionaires who got him elected. The billionaires and oligarchs will use Trump like a wet towel and leave him on the floor now that they have discovered Trump is willing to let them be policy makers as well as even more obscenely wealthy.
Trump's train ultimately will derail, crash and burn. But he won't be like Nixon, forced out because of one issue like Watergate. Instead, I think Trump eventually will go one toke over the line. His own supporters will finally abandon him.
I'm remembering when Trump came in riding down an up-escalator to announce his 2016 run. This year, it's his runaway train. The international media is already picking up on Trump's massive ego, authoritarian nature, and lack of the traits necessary to the ability to govern.
I think Trump is mistaken to think that the popularity and support for Bukele in El Salvador will transfer by osmosis to him. Bukele may be an autocrat, but he's young, handsome, cultured, and well-mannered -- all traits lacking in Trump. Bukele is not about to let any foreign leader tailgate him. He got Trump to pay him $6 million to warehouse America's detained deportees in El Salvador. And that's just the opening fee.
When Trump raised the prospect of deporting American citizens to prisons in El Salavdor at the meeting with Bukele, Trump was off his rocker. Bukele just saw dollar signs at the prospect of being able to fund and build more prisons like the atrocious CECOT.
And then there's the hapless, under-qualified AG Pam Bondi who in my opinion should still be a local prosecutor in Florida's conservative Hillsborough county. She's now morphed into a Trump lapdog, something she promised the Senate she would not become during her confirmation hearing. During the meeting with Bukele:
“Homegrown criminals next,” Trump whispered to Bukele as they entered the Oval Office.
...“I said homegrowns the next,” he added, raising his voice. “The homegrowns. You got to build about five more places.”
Asked about the illegality of deporting American citizens, Trump said Bondi is studying it.
What's there to study? It's unconstitutional. Bondi won't admit it. Instead she told Jesse Watters in that interview:
Referring to Americans, Bondi told Watters, “These people need to be locked up as long as they can, as long as the law allows. We’re not gonna let ‘em go anywhere, and if we have to build more prisons in our country, we will do it.”
Why mention building more prisons here as an alternative to shipping American citizens to foreign prisons if you don't know the latter is unconstitutional?
As Hunter Thompson famously wrote in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, "Buy the ticket, take the ride...." Democrats can't stop Trump's runaway train. So sit back and watch. Whether it takes one, two or three more years, Trump's supporters will become as disgusted as we are, and his train will permanently derail and self-destruct. Hopefully, the U.S. won't have been stripped of every vestige of democracy by then.
