BREAKING: Donald Trump Caught On Hot Mic Discussing Deporting American Citizens to El Salvador

In a stunning hot mic moment during a closed-door exchange with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, President Donald Trump suggested deporting American citizens—whom he called “home-growns”—to El Salvador for detention, a move that would be unprecedented and likely unconstitutional.

This story is developing—and the stakes could not be higher. If you value independent reporting that holds power to account and brings you the stories mainstream outlets ignore, consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

“You gotta build about five more places. It’s not big enough,” Trump told Bukele, referring to El Salvador’s sprawling and infamous CECOT prison, which has already become central to Trump’s controversial mass deportation efforts under the Alien Enemies Act. “Home-growns are next. The home-growns.”

Trump went on to say, “I’d like to go a step further. I said to Pam, I don’t know what the laws are, we always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways... I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country.”

While the Trump administration has already faced legal backlash over the deportation of noncitizens—most recently the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant with legal status who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador—this new comment appears to cross an even more alarming threshold: suggesting the removal of U.S. citizens from the country and detaining them abroad.

The revelations are the latest in a series of chilling developments surrounding Trump’s alliance with Bukele, whose megaprison has drawn international condemnation for alleged human rights abuses.

This rhetoric builds on Trump’s evolving campaign against dissent and domestic opposition. As previously reported, Trump has used law enforcement tools to target perceived enemies, revoked security clearances of critics, and floated proposals to strip citizenship from Americans engaged in protest.

Now, he appears to be fantasizing about physically removing American citizens and placing them in the custody of a foreign government with a record of mass detentions and torture.