Tim Miller reacts to a devastating new report from 60 Minutes, revealing even more details of the shocking treatment of Venezuelan migrants detained by the Trump administration in El Salvador and highlighting the Trump officials responsible.
Watch the 60 Minutes report: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/photojournalist-witnesses-venezuelan-migrants-arrival-in-el-salvador-60-minutes/
Get in touch with your elected officials and demand they help stop this atrocity: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
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Trump has a sick and dangerous mind. He knows the brutality occurring to prisoners in El Salvador. He is fine with that. None of these prisoners were given any due process. As a nation we share the shame.
Understand that enough of the American people support such disappearance because they support the militarization of our police and support their abuse of power and deadly force because they believe that people caught up in the legal system or picked up by cops are guilty. Americans don't believe in due process because they believe that only the guilty are caught up in the system. Trump and the GOP should hang for willfully violating the constitution and willfully infringing on people's rights.
This is such fascist shit. My heart hurts for this men every night.
From Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion today in Trump v. J.G.G.:
"The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise."
Justice Sotomayor’s opinion was joined in full by Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson. Justice Barrett joined Sotomayor’s opinion in part, but not this part.
Full PDF: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a931_2c83.pdf
Tim, thank you for continuing to speak out on this.
"There's got to be a really high bar." Yes!! This!!!! There has to be some kind of process.
Thank you for continuing to bring our attention to this. Where are the Republicans? Are there any Republicans who are upset about this??? Why aren't our representatives looking into this more??
Thank you Tim for staying on this story! I too believe it is the most outrageous and terrifying action taken by this criminal administration.
Serious shit Tim, I'm extremely concerned. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", sadly not this America anymore. Lady Liberty needs a new home.
I’ve been standing on a busy street corner near my house for 3 hours every day, with my sign to Bring Back Andry and Bring Back Abrego on the other side. Even people who are in their own information bubbles are forced to see it. I’ve been getting more honks lately as people are becoming more aware.
Dollars to doughnuts, the man is probably a Roman Catholic, not a Christian Nationalist. No white skin...
Tim -thanks for your review and commentary of these brutal criminal acts perpetrated by our government and in our name.
Well said, Tim. This is absolutely horrifying and disgusting. Karma will get them, I hope.
Karma? The Law - our Constitution - Must get them.
Thank God for the Bulwark fam, because I am in anguish over this. John Roberts is pure evil. He does not love the law or love the United States. The United States is treating these human beings worse than it treats its pets. This is so dark I can't comprehend it.
Right now, the public is not responding to this as they should, because it's very hard for people to accept that we are the bad guys, who are really TRULY behaving like the Soviets, or the Iranian religious enforcers, or the North Korean government.
"Surely," Americans are thinking, "there must be something more to this. Surely, our president and all these officials can't really be so wrong. Surely, there must be something missing in the reporting!"
But eventually it's going to sink in. And hoo boy, when it does, there will be holy hell to pay.
Or let's hope so.
Thank you Tim
These innocent guys. Isn't it libelous? All the bullshit they're announcing all over news stations? If they ever get back here, can they sue? Because this is fucking insane. Gods I hate it here. 😒
Everyone deserves due process. Even the criminals and people here without legal status. We have prisons. Keep them here. No equivocating about maybe they are criminals or this person is not a criminal. All deserve human rights. Dehumanizing them allows us and others to do anything to them. We are losing our humanity.
This makes me so angry!! Bring them back !!!!!
Thank you for all the time you’re devoting to this issue. I find it just as frightening and insane as you do, and it’s almost hard to believe it’s not a bigger story. If you can disappear people to a foreign gulag where they are beyond remedy from our legal system, nothing else really matters. And as you highlight, it’s not just the principle of it. It’s the horrible fate inflicted on this specific people, who don’t remotely deserve this.
Tim, get on Joe Rogan. Once a month till the midterms and beyond. You you you only you have the subject matter expertise, tactical persuasive ability to bridge the coalition gap. The opportunity is now given Joe’s expressed compassion. You two are the thought leaders of this moment and need to model how people can come together on the American fundamentals that have been twisted. If this story can breakthrough, it’s violation of due process, to Joe, others can as the market tanks.
I am less hopeful for Joe Rogan, but worth a shot. But Tim, please be careful!
Fuck Trump.
There's a special place in hell specifically for Trump, Miller, Noem, Homan, Scott, Vitello, Salisbury, and Rubio.
There is a good chance that the most innocent among these men are already dead. "I'm gay"? Do you think CECOT guards looked kindly on such a man? And Kilmar, who fled El Salvador for asylum? Did the guards give him special treatment? If so it was to kill him.
This is one of the worst crimes in my lifetime.
Thank you for covering this! It’s stunning how due process just ended and nothing seems to be changing that. Can’t wait to protest this monster again.
For all the talk you'd hear of "government jack-booted" thugs you'd hear from rightwing conspiracy theorists about dem governance, THIS is what it actually looks like. MAGA is using Salvadorian jack-booted thugs to disappear in gulags folks.
Also, I guess extraordinary rendition of AmCits to Salvadorian gulags is on the table now too?
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5235937-trump-el-salvador-prison-deportation/
This is so sickening and so sad. I have no words.
Taxpayer money was used to fly all the people rounded up without due process … why not talk about that as well?? Trump won’t back down even after the five were exonerated he still wouldn’t back down….this administration is beyond disgusting.
They are also using taxpayer money to pay El Salvador for imprisoning them. I believe it is $6M/year.
Do ICE officers take an oath to the Constitution? I can't stop thinking about them. How do you go from following the law to breaking it overnight? How much do they get payed to make it worth having to live with what you have helped to do to these people? Are they gov't employees or are they getting paid by Roger Stone or Pete Thiel? Wearing masks and showing no id. Why isn't anyone looking at this/
Humanity is being taken away on two fronts. First, most importantly, these people who’ve been stripped of due process. I disagree that anyone, even a terrorist, “deserves” this…which gets me to the second front. The oppressors, those first hand at the prison, who actually have their hands in the act of dehumanizing, and the “secondary” oppressors, the ones in our government whose hands are not actively involved in the imprisonment of these men, but those who have put the actions into play, or those who have silently acquiesced….those people are stripping themselves, willingly or unconsciously, of their own humanity. When you strip one human of their humanity—rightly or wrongly, a little of yours goes with it.
This is the first thing I looked at on Substack this morning. What a horrorific shitshow that makes me ashamed to be an American. Tim you are doing the heavy lifting of getting this exposed, and please take care of yourself. As I heard repeatedly in our local Indivisible members meeting yesterday, contacting our reps is more critical than ever. This is top of the list. I posted a link to the CBS article to my FB friends feed and a private political group asking them to do the same.
there are no words. who can a Canadian write too? I am going to write to my MP and ask him what we Canadians can do. We are doing our best to not support America's Economy in any way we can, but the helplessness over the brutality we witness is sickening.
Thank you to concerned people in Canada!
This is indefensible and twisted. One of the elements of fascism to control the people psychologically with fear. It is clear I do not plan to go to the US for safety reasons. It’s what they want but I feel rage and my heart is crying out for these people. And for the false equivalence BS arguments from the WH to rationalize this torture. It is beyond torture. This is worse than Guantanamo. Sick.
Thanks, Tim, for keeping attention on this. Over the weekend Trump said that he would send US citizens there too.
Andri is going to die. He is in no way prepared for the life that has befallen him. He will be victimized, brutalized and likely ultimately murdered. The only thing that might save him is the strictness of the environment he is in, but that depends on the guards not deciding to look the other way for 5 minutes one day. Donald Trump AND EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR HIM is responsible for whatever befalls this man.
I am shaken by the senseless cruelty and evil of this administration.
Innocent or guilty, citizen or non-citizen, legal or illegal resident - no one deserves this kind of treatment.
People are going to die horribly, not just in El Salvador, but also in jails where transgender women are being jailed with the men.
The blood and suffering of these people is on the hands of every American, but especially those who voted for him. I have never been so ashamed of my country.
I suspect he may already be dead.
It is truly inhumane the way Trump and his cronies are treating our fellow human beings. They are being treated like rabid animals rather than people. And hey, maybe some of them are more like animals if they are gang members, but they are still entitled to due process to determine if that really is the case. Is that not in our constitution? We are supposed to be better than this as a country.
🤬😱😭🤬😭😱
I can’t come up with the right words…
Looks like a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Like the Nazi’s treatment of Jews, these officers brutalized the men, stripped them naked, shaved their heads and shackled their hands and feet and threw them in a cage. All tactics to try and rob them of their humanity. This is not my United States of America. This is tyranny.
Tim, thanks for expressing our collective sadness, horror and outrage. I am a Canadian that is observing this from outside of your country, but I feel that I can still add my voice of support and offer a few comments. If the illegal kidnapping of immigrants on US soil, followed by their imprisonment in a foreign prison without due process doesn't raise multiple alarms with your elected officials, then I am not sure what will. It should not be difficult for them to determine which is the proper moral and legal course to follow.
I also find it hard to believe that the government cannot act to return all of the people who are imprisoned, so that they can all have due process. The government had no problem putting Kristi Noem inside the Terrorist Confinement Center to film one of the most dehumanizing and chilling propaganda video's that I have ever seen. Please don't then claim that it is just not possible to negotiate the return of innocent people.
This government could return these people for due process, but they will not unless they are forced to do so.
You hit the nail on the head: no due process.
The US now has its our own Auschwitz. Though the administration is technically trying to keep its hands ”clean” by hosting it in another nation, we are as guilty as Hitler and his cronies. If we the people do not stop this, we are complicit before the world.
“WE DID THAT,” said Tim about the gay stylist sent to be imprisoned in that Salvadoran hellhole.
And WE put the demonic Trump back in office.
Repent America. We must all repent for what WE allowed to happen.
@Tim Miller, I feel your horror and I share it. You are doing important work here on The Bulwark. But I am also tired of you talking about the inertia. Are you out on the streets as well? I am a physician and faculty member. I have the same questions for myself and attended my very first rally. It won't be my last. Recognize what we are dealing with here. I don't know if there will BE another election. It's not just politics nor policy, but it is the deconstruction of the government. And WHY? Some of them are idiots, but I'm not sure all of them are. What is the actual endgame of all of this?
I know you guys have kind of nibbled on this, but I fear we are getting caught in the weeds sometimes. That certainly seems to be the issue with the Democrats, outside of a few. The fundamental landscape has changed and it's hard to get our feet underneath us.
Heartfelt gratitude to you, Tim, for voicing the horror and anguish we feel over this disgusting cruelty wrought upon these human beings by our despicable government!!! I have no words to express my heartbreak and shame. What have we become???? The perpetrators of this outrage are no better than Hitler's Nazis! I feel so helpless and that is what these Trump robots want us to feel -- helpless, submissive, and beaten down. WE CANNOT SUBMIT. We MUST keep fighting for justice and humanity. I appreciate your clarion call, Tim, and your passion. As Jean-Paul Sartre, the great French existential philosopher said: "Hell is other people". Sadly we are witnesses to the truth of this statement.
Thanks Tim. I got some names and stories from someone at a Hands Off demostration. I will be following up in every way that I know how.
I question the humanity of all the thousands of people involved in this chain of torment. From every GOP voter, every GOP politician, to the pilots of the planes willing to do this dirty work, to the countless El Salvadorans willing to engage in this despicable mistreatment of their fellow humans. Forty years ago I watched a video put out by Amnesty International, called “The Making of A Torturer”. It was hard to watch, but I remember the key point; to be willing to hurt another human in this way requires that you yourself have been hurt. Well that doesn’t apply to the accomplices. All those fat cat billionaires “serving” this administration, all the MAGAs at hate fueled rallies - they cannot claim that ‘excuse’.
How are there so many people willing to participate in this? Maybe they better send Trump’s “personal pastor” a cool $1,000 to pay for a blessing and an angel, right? That’s how it works? No matter one’s black heart, it’s possible to purchase passage to Heaven?
Through my tears Tim, I thank you for bearing witness. You are a true servant of goodness. And I see the toll it is taking, but you ARE making a difference. I’ve heard other influencers mention your dogged pursuit of this.
Thank you, Tim, for expressing the anger this moment requires. We need more clear-eyed commentators like you.
Thank you Tim for keeping this sickening story as a top priority. This is horrific, disturbing, and terrifying. Every single one of these prisoners deserves due process and places like that shouldn't even exist. The United States of America has lost all moral high ground. To ship human beings to another country where they are basically being tortured would be unacceptable even if they had due process. The idea that the government is offering no transparency and expects us to trust them is fucking nuts. You are right. They work for us! Every American should know Andry's name and we should all demand that these men are brought back and that this should stop immediately. I'm looking in my area to see if we can get organized around this issue specifically.
There has to be a way, at least at some point, to hold Noem, Homan, Miller, all of the govt officials responsible for this accountable. They need to be in jail.
I’m sickened and moved…the cruelty that humans are capable of is hard to comprehend. I try to understand it with mental illness diagnosis but honestly it remains incomprehensible. The evil is at the top- read M. Scott Peck’s book, The People of the Lie. But, my representative, Shelley Moore Capito who has lived a privileged life of power, wealth and comfort- she isn’t a sociopath(or is she) however, she is so drunk with power and ease and privilege that she sits in the evil and justifies it. I could throw up.
It’s meant to de-humanize. Once people are turned into numbers all bets are off.
I keep coming back to this from Jacob Bronowski about the holocaust:
There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilization, into a regiment of ghosts--obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts.
As the song goes, when will we ever learn?
This is Nazi Germany, this is Putin’s regime, I can’t for the life of me know where Congress is. Being complicit is almost as bad as Trump’s cabinet. I’m happy Booker filibustered for 25 hours, but then what happened? Nothing. I tutor international students and everyday wonder if they will all have their visas revoked. Please keep podcasting, Tim. You are brave and ethical, and maybe someone in Congress will listen and act. I am not confident, but thank you for keeping this situation talked about.
Congress is controlled by castrated Republicans,
Keep up the pressure and focused attention! Our country has become a grotesque obscenity of our supposed values.
This country is filled with people who cheered for the brutal treatment of people who have not been convicted of any crimes. I wrote a comment to thank CBS on the YouTube video. The responses I received from scores of people were quick and reinforced my understanding of how rotten my fellow citizens are. I do not know how we climb out of this hole.
This is state-sponsored human trafficking. Congratulations, Trump voters, you have combined the Godfather with the Stasi state.
Both Maryland senators are silent. 7 days and no response to this unamerican behavior.
I saw 60 Minutes last night too. And it made me so angry & ashamed. I woke up at 2:00 in the morning & my anger surged again. This morning I skipped my workout & wrote my representative & senators. It is not enough & it may not do any good, but I have to try. Saturday, I marched. I have to believe that there is a path through this nightmare. I don’t know what it looks like, but I believe it will appear if we each do what we can for as long as it takes. I’m not willing to give up on our country.
I’m right there with you…all those things except it doesn’t feel like enough. To feel powerless to this kind of cruelty is itself brutal.
Sonofabitch. We now live in a police state.
Thank you Tim posted everywhere
Tim I felt very moved by this. Thank you for expressing how I feel.
And we are paying El Salvador about $20,000 per person per year to torture these men. They are using our tax dollars to pay for this torture instead of Meals on Wheels or Veterans Crisis Phone Workers. Despicable.
I just feel SHAME!.
Tim, thank you so much for this. I can tell how hard this was for you. But please DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. This is the American Auschwitz. Make no mistake about it.
Sickening and evil. Get the orange monster out NOW!
And here’s the problem with complying in advance—when NBC settled a bogus lawsuit with Trump in December 2024, it surrendered its integrity and thus its power. So . . . “They’re liars; they admitted they were liars; they had to pay millions to me for being liars.” And now this important story will be too easy for some to ignore.
60 Minutes is CBS, but I get your point.
Thank you for continuing to talk about this horrific atrocity as the destruction of bedrock america that it is. I keep calling my reps about it. One staffer told me, “I can’t tell you [what she’s doing about that] because she hasn’t made a statement yet.” (This was Gillibrand.) What the actual fuck.
Gillibrand is a huge disappointment. Can’t believe she voted for the GOP Continuing Resolution. I go ballistic every time I get a fundraising text from her. Are you kidding me??
I got a fundraising email from her recently with the subject line: “Jennifer, get off the sidelines.” How tone deaf can you be?
We got an email from one of our Senators over the weekend basically to crow about how he received a few awards (bestest-boy-in-the-Senate?) for his ‘bipartisan efforts’ - but he won’t return calls, emails, or letters from constituents. We still get fundraising texts here, too. Blocking and reporting spam has solved some of that at this point. Yes: are you kidding me?
Between our deficit, pending economic nuclear winter, almost universal global hatred of America now and our hyper partisan politics longing for some kind of authoritarian resolution it seems to me ....Osama Bin Ladin is looking up and saying.....I won, I crushed the Great Satan by making it turn on itself
Americans, we have to stop this! This is not our America! This is felon trump’s, trump’s family, Vance and his family, non citizen copresident musk and his family and women, trump’s cabinet, the maga GOP sychopant house and senate, and the maga cult supporters! They are the ones who should be in the El Salvadoran prison!
Felon trump can pay for prison but not for education
food for head start, USAID , healthcare, vaccines, veterans, Medicaid, disabilities, or any program benefits like Medicare and Social Security that we pay into !
Maybe someone in the WH press pool actually does a follow up question, have a hard copy photo of this shit, and put in the Presidents’ face. Thank you Tim and Bulwark. Seriously, we need to Hold these people accountable after they are out of office.
Your pain and anger is 1000% justified. I’m sickened by our government doing this in our names. You’re exactly right that our government are the terrorists here. I hope there will one day be Nuremberg-type trials.
There is a special place in hell for the people doing this. Also it makes me think of Alexei Navalny in a way and WE are doing this not Russia. How did we get to this place?
I have so many questions I would love to have a reporter ask the White House about these men.
For example, the White House claims that some of the men are rapists. Where did this crime take place? There should be a closed rape case. Is the victim aware there case was “solved”? Weren’t they denied justice by not seeing their rapist put on trial and convicted? Do they think their rapist is still on the street? Did the feds take case from the state? Does the state know it was “solved”? Who investigated? Is ICE trained to handle rape cases?
Since it is not a crime to be a gang member. How long do they have to serve?
When exactly will they be released for their individual “crimes”.
These individual cases are heartbreaking, but there are so many issues even if any of the claims of alleged crimes are true. The Dems are afraid that some criminality will actually materialize and it will make them look bad which is bullshit. I haven’t heard anything about how long they will be there and I have a horrible feeling they threw away the key. Not even a criminal deserves that.
Meanwhile, tRump’s response to having a microphone and camera in front of him (Faux News) yesterday was to brag about winning another golf game or award or something and then going on to dismiss the rule of law, thinks deportations.
Reporter: The president of El Salvador said he would be willing to take American citizens in federal prison population.
Trump: I love that
Geez, hard to hear but that will come soon, I fear.
Americans have been forever doing this shit though more quietly with little notice. In Montana recently the pros. in charge of def. a trans woman from a brutal attack involving perp. intentionally ramming his pick up truck into her stated he must have accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake...
https://montanafreepress.org/2025/02/04/man-agrees-to-plead-no-contest-to-charge-of-assaulting-person-he-believed-to-be-trans/
Thank you, your authenticity is unparalleled. This has been coming for weeks, you’re forcefulness and moral clarity seems to have liberated our grief, in which we somehow join together and grieve as one, and still alone. There’s no doubt more than one path forward, but at least tonight, all I can do is mourn.
Tim, thank you for bearing witness so that this gets out into the world.
I'm stunned and in tears. This type of inhumane treatment hits me viscerally. I watch each day in despair as our belief in the American dream is torn to shreds. I watch in horror as many of my friends are blind to the destruction being wrought before their eyes. When did they become so deaf, so heartless, so selfish, and so stupid? We have to wake up and fight. It is almost too late.
Thank you Tim. I admire your spirit, your heart, and your compassionate empathy. Don't stop fighting. I know I won't.
I'm stunned and in tears. This type of inhumane treatment hits me viscerally. I watch each day in despair as our belief in the American dream is torn to shreds. I watch in horror as many of my friends are blind to the destruction being wrought before their eyes. When did they become so deaf, so heartless, so selfish, and so stupid? We have to wake up and fight. It is almost too late.
Thank you Tim. I admire your spirit, your heart, and your compassionate empathy. Don't stop fighting. I know I won't.
And WE ARE paying the El Salvador government to keep these people.
Our taxpayer money!
Thank you, Tim for your compassion and standing up for what’s right for all the right reasons.
This is so fucking sick - thank you for covering it. I know it hurts your heart, but it is so important.
This shit angers me to no end. I’m quickly becoming dark JVL. I think the Trump voters are dumb, weak, angry, and don’t take responsibility for their shitty lives. We are, as a country, every bit this bad. 50% of us are pathetic and will continue to drag us down.
When I was in college in the late 70’s I was, today you would probably call it an au-pair, for a Jewish family with 2 kids. The boy asked me one day why everyone kept talking about the Holocaust, my answer was a simple “it must never happen again”. From day one of trumps reign of hate I have felt this building, I have no faith it will stop with this.
Thank you, Tim Miller for banging this drum loudly and consistently. I think — I hope — that your unrelenting attention to this unforgivable situation has helped make it more widely known.
Our for profit prisons and detention centers often house people in unacceptable and inhumane conditions. But nothing in this country compares to the black hole, devils island conditions in that gulag.
We were horrified when asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan & Uzbekistan were first held prisoner in a hotel in Panama City, then a jungle camp in the Darien gap & now dumped back in Panama City with no housing or assistance but this Nazi level torture enabling committed by the US government is so appalling there are LITERALLY NO WORDS
An evil atrocity! Thank you for pounding on this.
God bless you, Tim. My son is gay and works in Europe. He is already worried about coming back to the US to visit us, afraid that he might do or say something and get arrested in spite of his passport and proof of citizenship (and no criminal record!). He would never survive what’s happening to Andry. And, I might add, it’s not just my gay son who’s worried about coming home. The other young Americans he works with in Europe, they’re all scared. They think they will one day be considered traitors for working and living overseas. How did it come to this? Our “government” is just a mob of gangsters and criminals. This administration is who belongs in that prison, not these young men, many of whom have done nothing wrong. They’re just part of the show. I really hope there is a hell, and that Trump and his cabinet all burn in it.
I remember when I was a kid, learning about what happened in Nazi Germany, wondering, "how could everyday people in Germany & German-occupied Europe allow their government to do such things? And yet, here we are, ordering takeout, driving around, going to work. Besides marching in protests, writing & calling government officials, getting people to register, to vote, donating to righteous media companies & the ACLU, what can we do? I feel like nothing is enough.
Develop relationships with the other side. They can't be ignored in the hopes that someone else will vote in their place and nullify their vote. There's an opportunity with Trump instituting his economic plan which is unsettling for most people and creates a willingness to consider options. Nothing replaces the effectiveness of one to one interaction.
It’s asking a lot to develop relationships with people who voted for this.
Yes, it is. Guess it will show what people are made of.
I’ve tried multiple times and gotten burned every time. I know what they are made of.
I look at it as planting seeds. I don't expect immediate personal gratification. If you at least put alternate ideas in their ears, it might stick in their brain. If they never hear these alternate ideas, they'll never have something else to work with.
But there’s also the likelihood they might hurt you, once they know where you stand. Nobody uses bumper stickers any longer except MAGAs. Why? I rarely see anyone wearing merch, except MAGAs. I can’t afford a set of new tires/
Donate to the lawyers who are fighting this government’s crimes in court. And keep a list of the law firms who bend the knee to Trump. No one should ever do business with them ever again. I hope they all go belly up. I know those firms are too expensive for me to ever afford anyway, but they still need to be remembered as the filth they’ve shown themselves to be. And remember, there are former members of Democratic administrations in some of those law firms. Kamala’s husband is one of them. Will “the former 2nd gentleman” do the right thing and resign in protest? Apparently, that answer is “no”.
I'd love to donate to these wonderful law firms but I do live on Social Security, so that is not happening.
We often don't know what we don't know
Judy, if you are doing all those things you mentioned, you are doing A LOT. If you are donating to, as you say, righteous media companies, perhaps you can switch that donation to one of the attorney groups. I donate to Democracy Forward (https://democracyforward.org/). Their donation page starts with as low as a one time donation of $10 and you can fill in an even lower amount ($5 ?). At this point, the only way we’re going to forcefully stop Trump is in the courts, and even the smallest sum adds up if enough people do it.
Today, the Trump lawyers are appealing to the USSC to overturn the lower court ruling that they have to get the guy wrongfully sent to the El Salvador prison back to the US. We need smart, capable lawyers arguing in favor of the Constitution and the rule of law. Give what you can, no matter how small. Every little bit helps.
“Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Order Requiring Return of Wrongly Deported Migrant”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/politics/supreme-court-wrongly-deported.html?smid=url-share
I'm already struggling enough w/ overwhelming rage and grief, so I know I wouldn't be able to handle watching this. But hugs to you, Tim, for doing it; and please take care of yourself. This is truly soul-crushing stuff.
We are a fucking piece of shit third world, racist, banana republic!!! I’m disgusted!!
Human decency is clearly not one of this administration's strong suits! They all disgust me!
I’m curious about how this tracks with feelings about gitmo. If we have issues with this, did we have issues with the things that took place after 9/11? We disappeared people then too. And I’m not saying they weren’t (mainly) horrible people, but we turned them into ghosts as well. John Yoo, who wrote the torture memos, didn’t face any consequences, and has a chaired position at Berkeley. I think he is now pro Trump iirc. He should have been disbarred and disowned by civil society, treated as one would treat Diddy if he got out and were walking around. The fact that there were no consequences then has led us here.
The torture at Abu Ghraib and the advocacy of using torture by many in the GOP (including Dick Cheney) was perhaps the first step in that party's descent into its current sadistic, cruel, and malevolent form.
I'm probably wrong about this but could a Senator or Senators fly down to El Salvador and demand the release of the man they at least admit was a mistake?
Tim, I’m a proud mom of a young gay man. I’ve been sick sick sick about Andri ever since his story came out, I pray for him and his family. If that was my son, I wouldn’t be able to sleep or eat and would certainly be going crazy worrying about my innocent son’s treatment. Thanks for keeping on this story. Everyone - call or write your senators! This is unconscionable that America is doing this to innocent people 💔
Andri is all of our sons.
Compared to this, tariffs pale in comparison. THIS should be the headlines every fucking day. Thanks Tim for maintaining your focus on the most heinous acts of Trump 2 -- so far.
Just one quibble. A liberal democracy should not do this to anyone -- even those who have been granted due process and found guilty. What is shown here are crimes against humanity. And when one human does this willingly to another, they too lose a part of their humanity. As for the making of the ASMR video, the slickly produced Miller snuff film and Noem's concentration camp glamour shoot -- well that tells you everything necessary about the 'humanity' of the those responsible. In any other timeline, or even any other democratic nation, they would be the worst of criminals. But in this one, they rule the place.
The only difference between us and the nazis is that we sent these men to the gulag by plane instead of rail car. This is unacceptable and unamerican and I will not stand for it. I’ve been doing a 1-woman protest every day at a busy intersection near my house
And also that they were sent there bc of their tattoos, as opposed to receiving the tattoos upon arrival.
I agree with your quibble! We don't treat our worst convicted criminals like this. Even those on death row. This is unimaginably horrible and I can't stand that they are able to do this, especially in our names! Our history (no matter how inaccurate) of Americans being good, caring, generous people has just been obliterated by these acts. We are now the horrible people in the world and I desperately want to do something other than call Marsha Blackburn's office and leave horrified messages. Thank you, Tim, for continuing to emphasize these atrocities!
And are we still supposed to be working hard to “understand” MAGA voters? Not me.
I think I understand them perfectly.
Thank you, Tim, for repeatedly calling attention to this horror. And this administration wears their prominent gold crosses for all to see. Yeah, we see you Kristi. We see you Caroline. We see the justice you withhold, the cruelty you dispatch. I’m surprised that cross doesn’t scorch your blackened souls.
Just watched it... I hope those responsible burn in hell. My rage knows no bounds right now. 🤬😭
I agree with you Tim this is the most outrageous thing in Trump 2.0. It is so evil and I am panicked that these men are still there having to sleep on slabs, be in complete silence, not able to talk to their families, and not know if they will ever get out. It is so evil.
This is not who we are. For the love of God, anyone claiming to be a "Christian" who has taken part in this crime deserves to rot in a hell like this prison for eternity.
You are 100% on point, Tim. Noem, Trump and all involved deserve to spend their lives in a place like this.
Pure fucking evil. I am disgusted and so angry.
More reason Trump should go NOW! Get him out of the White House! Take his clothes and money! Send him to jail where he belongs!
That’s the beginning of my own “I Have a Dream” speech. Seeing all the despicable humans in this administration behind bars. Sometimes it feels like very real to me.
You really brought it home, Tim.
We need to hit people with these stories over and over while they're angry over their 401k and more apt to listen. I texted the 60 Min episode to my MAGA-lite siblings tonight.
I realize that the main concern right now is with the emotional reaction to how horrid this is. But it also occurs to me that this makes us all less safe, not just within the US but maybe even more so outside of it. Years ago, a friend and I were traveling in rural Mexico - we were young and doing dumb things like hitchhiking rides. And while I know that sounds really risky, the fact is that we felt that as obvious Americans we were untouchable in a way. I'm not proud of that feeling, but I do think we were most likely right to have been so insouciant. But now one has to wonder, can Americans really feel safe elsewhere in the world if our government treats people so callously and inhumanely. It just feels like it adds another layer to what Bill wrote the other day about the lights going out all around us.
It’s a weird feeling to feel actually LESS safe in America than elsewhere.
Several hours ago Trump confirmed to reporters aboard Air Force One his desire to also send United States citizens to prison in El Salvador: https://youtu.be/TLo4ZAOABws?feature=shared&t=811
But suddenly he is talking about “doing what the law allows” he said it twice…???
As far back as February 4th this was covered in the New York Times (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/us/politics/trump-el-salvador-americans-jail.html?unlocked_article_code=1.904.MI8P.fuaL1V7YUIdu&smid=url-share
Shit’s gonna get real
Shit's real already. Just unimaginable.
Kidnapping someone? Who was in our care? Pure, outrageous evil!
Great piece Tim.
I love you Tim!!
Thanks Tim. Your anger is my anger.
Trump just said that he would love to send American citizens to that El Salvadoran jail, “the worst of the worst, violent criminals”. Remember that’s who he said would be deported first. He’s also said that the “enemy within” are the most dangerous people in the United States. He is “grooming” us as skillfully as a pedophile grooms a vulnerable child to accept the incarceration abroad of American citizens!
From Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion today (April 7) in Trump v. J.G.G.:
"The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise."
Justice Sotomayor’s opinion was joined in full by Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson. Justice Barrett joined Sotomayor’s opinion in part, but not this part.
Full PDF: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a931_2c83.pdf
I have seriously considered the tale of spies who carried cyanide pills for such a personal emergency that they’d rather not experience. I don’t know if those stories are true, or some writer’s imagination, but sign me up. I’d rather be dead than live through a Salvadoran prison experience. From the first day of this travesty, I expected it was just a windup for the slow boil. Whoever first wrote of Trump, “There is no bottom” was right about him, and right about this evil cabal.
That is absolutely the right perspective: grooming Americans to accept these immoral actions
Thank you for highlighting this Sarah. I believe you are referring to his comments to media aboard Air Force One today. Among other things, he stated he wants to send United States citizens he considers “wise guys” to prison in El Salvador. Here is the video: https://youtu.be/TLo4ZAOABws?feature=shared&t=811
Odd that there’s no comments section associated with this video as there usually is. Maybe to protect the audience from surveillance?
I believe you are referring to the YouTube video linked in my comment. This footage was posted by the PBS NewsHour account which as a matter of practice turns off the ability to comment on all of their videos.
Yes, those are exactly the comments I was referencing, and I also remember when he talked about the same thing during the campaign. He tests the water to see how much resistance his ideas will generate and also to get us used to them. It just struck me with these latest remarks that this is a form of widespread grooming.
Thank you for sharing your recollection about Trump previously discussing this during the campaign, as I do not recall this myself. I'm going to try and find documentation of this, so if you happen to have a link to a source where he makes these comments I'd appreciate you sharing it. The idea of sending United States citizens to a prison in another country would seem outlandish to me until very recently. Now, I think it is important to be clear-eyed about adjusting our assessment of the range of possible actions likely to occur under this administration. I suspect such a possibility may seem outlandish for many people (like me until recently), so I think it would be helpful to accurately document the progression of this rhetoric.
Sadly, as far back as February 4th Trump began threatening to send United State citizens, as covered in the New York Times (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/us/politics/trump-el-salvador-americans-jail.html?unlocked_article_code=1.904.MI8P.fuaL1V7YUIdu&smid=url-share
The most outrageous foreal