Donald Trump tore into a CNN reporter after she asked a question about a man who had been mistakenly deported to El Salvador. The President hit out at the broadcaster’s Chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins as he took questions from the press in the Oval Office alongside President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.
“Let’s not start with CNN because they are just so wrong,” Mr Trump said as he began to take questions. When it was Collins’ turn, the US President said: “Let’s hear the question from this very low-rated anchor at CNN.” The journalist asked if Mr Trump was planning to ask President Bukele to help return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US, sparking a reaction from the US leader.
Mr Abrego Garcia, Salvadorian national, is a father from Maryland and had been living in the US for 14 years before being deported and sent to a notorious gang prison in his home nation.
He entered the US illegally but an immigration judge in 2019 granted him protection from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs that terrorised his family.
The Trump administration said Mr Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error” and the US Supreme Court has called on the White House to facilitate his return.
The administration claims Mr Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang – something he denies and he has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Mr Trump referred Collins’ question to Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, before claiming CNN “always ask it [questions] with a slant”.
“How long do we have to answer this question from you,” the President said.
“Why don’t you just say, ‘isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country’? Why can’t you just say that?’
Collins then attempted to ask a follow up but Mr Trump said: “Why do you go over and over, that’s why no one watches you anymore, you have no credibility.”
He also accused CNN of “fake news” and said he thinks the broadcasters “hate our country actually”.
CNN’s Dana Bash responded on her show on Monday afternoon, saying “CNN does not hate our country, that should go without saying” and dismissed Mr Trump’s remarks as a “rhetorical device”.
Mr Trump’s top advisers and Mr Bukele said there were no plans to return Mr Abrego Garcia.
Sitting next to the US President, Mr Bukele described the idea as “preposterous”, saying: “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?
“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
MS-13 has been designated by the US as a foreign terror organisation.
Mr Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence that he was affiliated with MS-13 or any other gang.
Trump administration officials emphasised Mr Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador and that the US has no say in his future.