Bukele and Trump: Crime, Control, and Constitutional Collapse

This past week, when he met with the Salvadoran President, Trump lauded him, telling the people of El Salvador that they have “one hell of a President.” Following his interview that exploded on YouTube, reaching six million views in just a few weeks, Tucker Carlson took to Twitter: “[Bukele] may have the blueprint for saving the world.” Elon Musk said that “El Salvador has an amazing leader” after conversing with Bukele at his Tesla factory in Austin, Texas. Even commentators like Michael Knowles on YouTube laughed off criticisms of Bukele being authoritarian and actually praised his policy, stating, “He’s ‘authoritarian’? He’s wielding authority to do good.” What is clear is that conservative America loves Nayib Bukele. But my question is: why do they commend him so? Who is he? Why did Salvadorians elect him? Are there any parallels between his rule and Donald Trump’s candidacy? 

Nayib Bukele was first elected at the beginning of 2019 with nearly 53.1% of Salvadorians casting their vote for him. The reason for this dominance in the polls: his promise to fix crime and corruption in the country. At the time, El Salvador was considered the murder capital of the world. Gangs very literally controlled the country, using barbaric tactics like rape, murder, and torture to claim neighborhoods for their own. The brutality became so bad that, according to the Guardian, gangs killed 106 people per 100000—that is over 100% the murder rate of a country like the United Kingdom. 

Though these statistics speak to the horrors El Salvador faced on a national level, it can be hard to comprehend the suffering and danger that citizens faced on a day-to-day basis. Take my family as an example of the threat people faced. In 2015, a distant relative of mine was a resident of a neighborhood that MS-13 claimed for its own. They demanded that each homeowner pay a tax. My aunt refused. As a result, the gang slipped a letter under her door with a description of her daughter’s activities that day, followed by threats about what would happen if she did not pay. It is no wonder, then, that Salvadorians elected Bukele. When he was elected, he pulled through. In three years, he took El Salvador from the most dangerous country in the world to the safest by declaring martial law, deploying the military to the entire country, and imprisoning nearly 1% of the population, or 65,000 people. 

Though this transformation is extraordinary, it comes at a cost: authoritarianism. Since 2022, Bukele has ruled El Salvador under martial law despite having wiped out close to all gang activity. Under martial law, he has incarcerated thousands of people without due process, and he has even ordered police to detain men and women solely because they have tattoos. As a result, hundreds of innocent people have ended up in mega prisons, placed into cells with actual murderers. Moreover, he has used his power to replace the elected attorney general and all five supreme court judges with loyalists. In the past year, he has cracked down on freedom of expression; specifically, he has targeted journalists who speak out against him, considered them propagandists, and even installed spy software in their iPhones. He has undermined the constitution by ignoring the ban against consecutive presidential terms and running and being elected again.

President Bukele represents everything the right wants. One of the top priorities for conservatives is a crackdown on crime and immigration—but not just any crackdown, a Bukele-style crackdown. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2024, 84% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believed that all immigrants who are illegally in the U.S. should be deported. This sentiment reflects the idea that increased immigration is directly linked to increased crime. As a result, conservatives looked for a leader like Bukele—someone who would be resolutely intolerant of those deemed dangerous to society, using any means necessary to achieve this, even if those means were inhumane. Just as Bukele made El Salvador one of the safest countries in the region, the right sought a figure who would “Make America Great Again”—and they found it in Donald Trump.

Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele have strikingly similar presidencies. Just as Bukele imprisoned thousands suspected of gang affiliation, Trump is now incarcerating anyone suspected of being an immigrant. Legal status no longer matters—if you’re suspected, you’re a target. The result: authorities have deported individuals like Kilmar Ábrego García, a man legally protected under U.S. immigration law and granted permission to live and work in the country. Trump has sent thousands of deportees to El Salvador, where they are being held in the same prisons as MS-13 members. In parallel to Bukele’s consolidation of power, Trump has appointed loyalists to the Supreme Court—individuals he knows will side with him and carry out his agenda. He has also threatened and retaliated against nearly every media outlet that has criticized his policies.

Given the striking similarities between Bukele and Trump, it is as though Trump’s next move can be predicted. Just as Bukele defied El Salvador’s constitution to run for a second term, Trump will likely attempt to run for a third. In a March 2025 interview with NBC News, Trump stated, “I’m not joking” about seeking a third term, adding, “There are methods which you could do it.” Just as El Salvador has bent its constitution to empower one man, the United States may soon follow. Just as El Salvador is shifting toward authoritarianism, so too is America. And just as El Salvador enters an era without democracy, America may be entering its own.

Sources:

Gellman, Mneesha. “Freedom of Expression Under Attack in Bukele’s El Salvador.” NACLA. January 31, 2024. https://nacla.org/freedom-expression-under-attack-bukele-el-salvador/

Sherman, Christopher. “The President Jailed 1% of El Salvador’s Population. Their Children Are Paying the Consequences.” Associated Press. April 14, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-bukele-central-america-crime-gangs-60c3a34c571dfdbdf0a203deb85abf71

Gallup. “Sharply More Americans Want to Curb Immigration to U.S.” Gallup. February 13, 2025. https://news.gallup.com/poll/647123/sharply-americans-curb-immigration.aspx

Pew Research Center. “How Americans View the U.S.-Mexico Border Situation and the Government’s Handling of the Issue.” Pew Research Center. February 15, 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/15/how-americans-view-the-situation-at-the-u-s-mexico-border-its-causes-and-consequences/

CNN. “What We Know About El Salvador’s ‘Mega Prison’ Where Trump Is Sending Deportees.” CNN. March 17, 2025. (I was unable to locate a working URL for this article.)

Walters, Joanna. “Denied, Detained, Deported: The Most High-Profile Cases in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown.” The Guardian. April 18, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/28/trump-immigration-people-detained-deported-cases

Lakhani, Nina. “Violent Deaths in El Salvador Spiked 70% in 2015, Figures Reveal.” The Guardian. January 4, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/04/el-salvador-violence-deaths-murder-2015

Le Monde. “Trump’s Fight Against Immigration Takes Priority Over the Law.” Le Monde. April 15, 2025. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/04/15/trump-s-fight-against-immigration-takes-priority-over-the-law_6740241_23.html