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Sen Van Hollen, a vocal Trump critic, on how the Democrats get back in the fight | GZERO World

Sen Van Hollen, a vocal Trump critic, on how the Democrats get back in the fight

In a clip from GZERO World’s latest episode, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen lays out what Democrats must do to reclaim political momentum—and it starts with ditching reactive politics. “Voters don’t like people who always seem to have their finger to the wind,” he says. “Probably if I’d done that, I wouldn’t have gone to El Salvador.”

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After Sen. Van Hollen's visit to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, what's next? | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

After Sen. Van Hollen's visit to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, what's next?

Ian Bremmer sits down with Senator Chris Van Hollen in the US Capitol Complex in the latest episode of GZERO World to discuss his high-profile trip to El Salvador and what comes next. Van Hollen's visit was intended to draw attention to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident wrongfully deported and held in a Salvadoran prison. But despite the media splash and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling demanding his return, the senator says the Trump administration has done nothing: “The Vice President of El Salvador made it clear repeatedly that the ball was in the Trump administration’s court… They’re only holding him because the Trump administration is paying them to do so.”

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[OLD]Why Sen. Chris Van Hollen stood up to Trump | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Why Sen. Chris Van Hollen stood up to Trump

In the latest episode of GZERO World, Ian Bremmer speaks with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen about his recent trip to El Salvador and his broader concerns over the Trump administration’s abuse of executive power. Van Hollen visited Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man legally residing in the United States (though who initially entered illegally) who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador. Despite a unanimous Supreme Court ruling ordering his return, “the President admitted that he could get him back by simply picking up the phone,” Van Hollen says. “They are in violation of a nine-to-nothing Supreme Court order.”

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Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen on why he went to El Salvador and what's next

Listen: In the latest episode of the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen to unpack what he calls a constitutional crisis unfolding under the Trump administration. At the center of the conversation is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father of three who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and remains imprisoned in a maximum-security facility known for human rights abuses. Van Hollen recently traveled to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia and pressure local authorities, telling Bremmer, “I asked [them] whether or not El Salvador had any independent basis for holding him. His answer was, ‘No… the Trump administration is paying us money to do so.’”

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Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Small Country Big Story: El Salvador and the appeal of the "world's coolest dictator"

Nayib Bukele, the millennial strongman president of El Salvador, has many admirers. At least 1 million of them now follow an Instagram “fan” account dedicated to him. The account, @Bukele2024, regularly posts videos of Salvadoran gang members in prison, their heads shaven and their faces crawling with tattoos, crouching or cowering half-naked in the cells or yards of El Salvador’s maximum security facilities.

The gushing comments under these videos come largely from Salvadorans, more than 90% of whom currently support Bukele, who is now in his second term.

But many also come from outside the country.

“Excellent, we need a president like that in Argentina [heart],” says one.

“Mexico needs this kind of government!” reads another.

“Congratulations from Brazil!”

Bukele’s popularity at home – and his rising appeal abroad – come from a single, once-unimaginable achievement: Making El Salvador Safe Again.

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Gavin Newsom speaks at the Vogue World: Hollywood Announcement at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, CA on March 26, 2025.

Photo by Corine Solberg/Sipa USA

California launches Canadian charm offensive

California governor Gavin Newsom kicked off a campaign to promote Canadian tourism in his state, pitching its sunny beaches, lush vineyards, and world-class restaurants.

Why now? California tourism operators are feeling the pinch as relations between the US and Canada sour under Trump. Newsom reports that Canadian tourism to his state has fallen 12% compared to last year.

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U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) speaks to the media during a visit to El Salvador to advocate for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man deported without due process by the Trump administration and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), in San Salvador, El Salvador, on April 16, 2025.

REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

HARD NUMBERS: Maryland senator flies to El Salvador, Russian journalists jailed, California sues Trump admin over tariffs, EU tilts right on asylum, Peru’s ex-president guilty of money laundering

1: On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) flew to El Salvador to advocate for the release of Kilmar Abgrego Garcia, a Maryland resident wrongfully deported to a brutal high-security prison there. Van Hollen, who met with the Salvadoran vice president, is the only US lawmaker to make the trip. The Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration should “facilitate” Garcia’s return to the United States, but US President Donald Trump has shown no willingness to do so. (Does that mean the United States is facing a constitutional crisis? Here’s what Ian Bremmer has to say).

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- YouTube

Trump’s inaction on wrongful deportation may spark constitutional crisis

Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

If the US won't work to return a wrongly deported man to El Salvador despite a Supreme Court ruling, are we headed towards a constitutional crisis?

It certainly appears that way, and I think this is the constitutional crisis that the Trump administration would love to have. Because wrongfully deporting someone without evidence who is in the country illegally and therefore guilty of a misdemeanor, but sending them to a max security prison, which the Supreme Court says you shouldn't do, but now is in another country. Very few Americans are sympathetic to the case of this person. And indeed, Trump won on the basis in part of being sick and tired of allowing illegal immigrants to spend enormous amounts of time in the United States without recourse.

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