Hey, someone finally worked up the courage to ask Downmarket Mussolini a real question. In a contentious ABC interview Trump openly admitted what we all know but much of our media and political establishment is pretending was in question; the Klepto Kaiser *can* get Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from a torture prison in El Salvador with a mere phone call, he just doesn't want to and he's hiding behind his lawyers to get away with trafficking an innocent man to a foreign concentration camp.

https://archive.ph/Q8lQT

Trump’s Tirade at Reporter Wrecks His Own Case Against Abrego Garcia

"In the interview, ABC News’s Terry Moran pointed out that Trump has the power to pick up the phone, call El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, and with the “power of the presidency” get Bukele to release him.

“I could,” Trump replied. “If he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.”

At the most basic level, this destroys one of the Trump administration’s central arguments for leaving Abrego Garcia to rot in an El Salvadoran gulag. Administration officials say they have no power to compel Bukele to release him, because it would intrude on Salvadoran sovereignty to dictate that country’s treatment of one of its own.

But Trump just admitted that if he called Bukele and asked him to do this, his fellow dictator would in fact comply. This wrecks the fake distinction upon which Trump has hung his whole argument—the one between compelling Bukele to release Abrego Garcia and merely requesting that Bukele do so."

I've never been a fan of Sargent's writing either, so I'll save you the click through - as the author notes Trump also said a number of other very revealing things when the ABC reporter went in harder:

- when Moran pointed out that Trump's own answer meant he was violating a Supreme Court Order, Der Leader shifted the blame to his lawyers. As Sargent points out, this isn't an adequate answer because that means either Trump's lawyers are running the country, or he's *knowingly* violating multiple court orders.

- when pressed on the government's argument that Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, Trump said that the Maryland man had "MS-13" tattooed across his knuckles. As the reporter pointed out, Garcia does not; he has a leaf, a smiley face, a cross. and a skull, which the government labeled as meaning "MS-13" in a photo Trump himself displayed for news cameras, despite the fact that experts who study the gang have never seen those symbols associated with MS 13.

- after Moran told Trump the government had digitally altered the picture of Garcia's hand tattoos, Der Leader tossed his spaghetti. In an exchange that I think says a lot about how Trump sees the media's role in covering his presidency, the president snapped "Terry, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. I picked you. But you're not being very nice."

I don't think it's time to break out the commemorative "All the President's Men" glasses just yet, but it is nice to see a mainstream corporate media outlet get into the weeds a little bit when Trump is openly lying into a camera, and you can definitely see why the White House is trying to stack the press pool full of Fox reporters, Newsmax hosts, and fascist Youtubers. Unravelling the regime's enforced unreality and governance by conspiracy theory is frightfully easy if you get to ask Trump any follow up questions.

In terms of the substance of what Trump said however, yeah I think he just hung himself on camera; for whatever that's even worth given the lawless behavior of the Trumpenreich regime. Trump could bring Garcia back, he just doesn't want to because he says Garcia is a "gang member" even though the government hasn't proven that, and won't ever be able to prove that in court.

"The evidence for Abrego Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties is extremely thin. It’s largely based on the testimony of a Maryland cop who was suspended soon after and indicted for serious professional misconduct involving the sharing of confidential information with a sex worker. He pleaded guilty and was removed from the force.

The MS-13 claim isn’t just a vile smear. The idea that Abrego Garcia poses a severe public safety threat is the foundation for the administration’s entire rationale for not bringing him back and attempting to remove him again via lawful channels. Note that Trump suggested to Moran that if Abrego Garcia were not a gang member, Trump would bring him back.

So the administration should have to answer for the fact that the whole basis for not doing so is largely the finding of one disgraced cop. Yet neither Trump nor any senior administration officials have ever been questioned on this point."

Yes.