ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers grilled President Donald Trump over his bombshell admission that he could secure the return of wrongly-deported migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador if he wanted to.
ABC News presented an exclusive interview with Trump as an hourlong special entitled President Trump the First 100 Days: The Interview in the Oval Office, during which Trump got into a bitter fight with anchor Terry Moran over Garcia’s tattoos.
Along the way, Trump admitted “I could” when Moran said “You could get him back” — which supports the idea that Trump is disobeying a Supreme Court order:
TRUMP: He came into our country illegally.MORAN. You could get him back. [pointing to Resolute Desk] There’s a phone on this desk.TRUMP: I could.MORAN: You could pick it up, and with all the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, “Send him back right now.”TRUMP: And if he were the gentleman you say he is, I would do that.
Trump took questions at a lengthy cabinet meeting Wednesday afternoon, during which Travers immediately asked him about the exchange with Moran, and whether El Salvador President Nayib Bukele would comply if Trump asked for Garcia’s return:
KAREN TRAVERS: Mr. President, yesterday you told ABC News, Mr. President, you told the ABC News yesterday that you could get Abrego Garcia back if you wanted to.Do you think President
Bukele would turn you down if you made that request?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I really don’t know.I know that he’s been a great friend of our country. He’s gotten a lot less money than this would take from us if we were gonna build these jails and do what he’s doing. And they run a very professional operation.I don’t, I haven’t spoken to him. I really leave that to the lawyers, and I take my advice from Pam and everybody that is very much involved. They know the laws, and we follow the laws exactly.
Watch above via Fox News.