Trump Plays the Hits, and Takes Some

As voters lose trust in his stewardship of the economy, the president is shifting to the familiar terrain of immigration. The problem for him is that, as fears of recession grow, the issue is tumbling down the list of voters’ concerns.

Changing the subject to immigration puts him on safer ground: Trump loves a culture war fight, and after last year’s campaign wipeout, few elected Democrats seem willing or eager to speak out in loud defense of a person who initially entered the country illegally. Photo: Olivier Touron/AFP/Getty Images

Peter Hamby

April 15, 2025

If it wasn’t abundantly clear, Donald Trump would love to talk about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, thank you very much. The Salvadoran migrant—who’d been living in the United States legally, but was deported and transferred to Nayib Bukele’s ghoulish prison camp in El Salvador last month without trial or due process, or really any evidence of wrongdoing at all—has become this week’s main character in Washington. Garcia’s family is fighting for his release, multiple federal judges have called his deportation “lawless” and “unconscionable,” and even the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court order to “facilitate” Garcia’s return to the United States. Trump’s response? Openly defying the rule of law, backslapping Bukele in the Oval Office, and watching the news media go into outrage mode as the president courts a constitutional crisis.