CNN Host: Trump ‘Right On The Politics’ of Wrongly Deported Abrego Garcia Despite Being ‘Wrong On The Merits’

CNN host Michael Smerconish said President Donald Trump is right “on the politics” of three issues on which he’s “wrong on the merits, including the administration’s deportation of, and refusal to bring back, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

On Saturday’s Smerconish on CNN, the host referenced a post he shared earlier in the week on X outlining the three issues on which he said Trump is wrong but is nevertheless benefiting from politically.

Three stories dominate the news today. In each, @realDonaldTrump is wrong on the merits, but benefitting politically: 1) defunding Harvard, 2) not "facilitating" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and 3) reducing the IRS workforce by 40%. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Cheers, applause,…

— Michael Smerconish (@smerconish) April 16, 2025

He discussed each of them, starting first with Harvard – which Smerconish said is an un-sympathetic target, and Trump “relishes” the chance to have the public fight with the university.

On the deportation of Abrego Garcia, Smerconish laid out how the administration is describing the Maryland resident and citizen of El Salvador as a gang member with a history of domestic violence whose deportation was “long overdue.

Smerconish then covered how the deported man’s “defenders” are portraying him: As “a law-abiding man with deep roots in this country. He’s married to a U.S. Citizen and is raising three kids.”

But, he said, it’s not a losing issue politically. He showed a clip of CNN’s Harry Enten discussing the public’s views on deportation which are “much closer to Donald Trump” than to the Democrats and media.

Smerconish brought Sen. Sen. Chris Van Hollen a Democrat, whose visit to Abrego Garcia in El Salvador played poorly versus the White House visit of Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel Morin was slain by a violent criminal here illegally.

Noting it doesn’t play well for Democrats, Smerconish repeated his view that Trump is “right on the politics, wrong on the merits” on the issue.

SMERCONISH: Issue two: Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Born in El Salvador, he entered the U.S. In 2011, illegally, when he was 16. Last month he was arrested in Baltimore and deported back to El Salvador where he was at first housed in the notorious terrorism confinement center: the largest prison in Latin America– maximum security and built to hold gang members, he has since been moved to a different detention center. The administration originally admitted mistakes in his deportation, but now defends their decision.

To the Trump White House, Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal who had hearings in 2019 and was found by two judges to be a member of the ms-13 gang. In addition, they now note he has a history of domestic violence and is a suspected human trafficker. His deportation in 2025 was, if anything, long overdue.

To his defenders, he’s a law-abiding man with deep roots in this country. He’s married to a U.S. Citizen and is raising three kids. He’s never been charged with a crime while living here, and the evidence he’s a gang member is thin. No matter which take you believe, it seems pretty clear he was denied due process.

We know in 2019 he argued he was likely to suffer persecution if returned to El Salvador and was granted “withholding of removal” status which protected him against deportation to his native land. Yet, despite what the courts said then, and reaffirmed in 2025, he was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

So that means it’s a losing issue, politically, for the president? Nope. Again, this is a fight he relishes.

As Harry Enten notes, deportations are popular.

ENTEN (Clip): Back in 2016, just 38% of voters wanted the government to try to deport all eleven million undocumented immigrants. Compared to where we are in 2025, 56%, the majority, the American people have come a long way on this issue, much closer to Donald Trump, and I think that’s a big part of the reason why Americans are increasingly saying the country is on the right track when it comes to immigration policy and why Donald Trump’s approval rating on that issue is in the positive.

The democrats’ approach to the issue is symbolized by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia’s “Health and wellbeing.” They met and Van Hollen tweeted “I have called his wife, jennifer, to pass along his message of love.” Meanwhile,on the same day Van Hollen was in El Salvador, Patty Morin was invited to the White House. She’s a Maryland citizen and her daughter Rachel was killed by another migrant from El Salvador, a crime for which he was convicted on Monday. Rachel Morin’s murder left 5 children motherless. Patty Morin said that senator Van Hollen didn’t acknowledge, or barely acknowledged, her daughter’s execution.

So was Abrego Garcia denied due process and will that politically harm the president? Not when Abrego Garcia is sharing a split screen with Patty Morin.

Wrong on the merits. Right on the politics.

Watch the clip above via CNN.