Wrongly deported man not leaving El Salvador prison, Bukele says

USA Today

15-04-2025

Wrongly deported man not leaving El Salvador prison, Bukele says | The Excerpt
On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: El Salvador's president says a wrongly deported man is not leaving a Salvadoran prison. USA TODAY Money and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee discusses a positive day for the stock market, and what might be next for tariffs. The U.S. exceeds 700 measles cases. The Trump administration froze billions in funding to Harvard after the school rejected demands. USA TODAY National Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry discusses how President Donald Trump is targeting museums he said push divisive ideology. A new class of WNBA rookies has arrived.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, April 15th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, El Salvador's president says a wrongly deported man will not be leaving a Salvadoran prison, plus we check in with the markets amid some positive stock indicators early in the week, and could Trump transform D.C.'s African American History Museum?
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El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele indicated he does not plan to send a wrongfully deported Maryland man back to the US after the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. Bukele said at an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump that he does not have the power to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man he accused of being a terrorist.
President Nayib Bukele:
How can I smuggle a terrorist to the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States.
But you could release him inside El Salvador.
Yeah, but I'm not releasing, I mean, we're not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country-
Taylor Wilson:
The Trump administration says Abrego Garcia is a member of the criminal MS-13 gang, a claim a US district judge said the administration had not provided evidence to support according to court documents. Abrego Garcia's lawyers say the MS-13 chapter he was accused of being a part of is based in New York, a state in which he has never lived. A court ruled he was wrongfully deported to a super-max prison in El Salvador, where suspected members of MS-13 and the Tren de Aragua gang are being held.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must facilitate his return. The administration has argued, the high court's ruling said it was their responsibility to facilitate his return, but that the government did not have to bring it about. Attorney General Pam Bondi said during Trump's meeting with Bukele that it's up to El Salvador if they want to return him.
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President Donald Trump yesterday floated another possible tariff exemption. I caught up with USA TODAY money and personal finance reporter, Medora Lee to discuss and take a look at some encouraging news from the markets. Hello, Medora.
Medora Lee:
Hi, how are you?
Taylor Wilson:
Good, good. Thanks for hopping on. So we began a new week with more tariff news unsurprisingly. I know we heard about an exemption for the automakers. I guess let's start there. What happened on this front?
Medora Lee:
Okay, so this is not for certain yet, but President Trump floated that he's considering some temporary exemptions from his 25% tariffs on the auto industry. And the point was to try to give the car companies more time to transition their manufacturing into the US again and away from Canada and Mexico and wherever else. So when he made these remarks, people were pretty excited because he had just made an exemption for smartphones, computers, and other electronics from the reciprocal tariffs. And so people are kind of excited about that because if he is narrowing his targets and removing some of the tariffs, I think that that should be seen as a positive for the stock market.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, let's talk about the stock market. We have seen some dark days really, Medora, in recent weeks. How did this week begin?
Medora Lee:
The week began pretty good because of the exemptions for smartphones and computers and other electronics. And this is particularly good news for Apple. Apple does a lot of its manufacturing of those iPhones that we love in China or uses parts from China as well. So I think that this was seen as really good news because people were very worried about those extremely high tariffs on China. And so the markets were pretty happy about that. And it's interesting because they started to kind of give back their gains around mid-session and then Trump of course comes in with his possible exemption on auto industry to save the day.
Taylor Wilson:
Right. Well, in trying to get a read, I guess, of the markets overall right now, Medora, I mean was this Monday trading a sign that investor confidence is growing at all around these tariffs? What can we take away from this Monday trading, if anything?
Medora Lee:
I think that most analysts are still pretty cautious. They are saying that after the last couple of weeks, we all know that now markets can swing violently one way or another. I think people are feeling cautiously optimistic that maybe Trump is softening his tariffs. But they're not a hundred percent convinced because over the weekend, people from the administration made the Sunday talk show rounds and they continued to sound pretty hawkish. They reminded people that these are just temporary, that we still intend to put tariffs on all these electronics and smartphones, sort of like don't get carried away. So we'll have to see what happens.
The one thing that I think a lot of people also who are trying to stay optimistic are saying that the big thing that could turn this around is not just the narrowing of tariff season. Even if we don't soften the tariffs a ton, just a little bit, if Trump can enact some pro-growth policies in the second half of the year, we could maybe avoid a big slowdown or a recession. And those kind of pro-growth things are deregulation and tax cuts.
Taylor Wilson:
Some comments that stood out to me were from former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said, "Trump's tariffs have escalated the risks of a recession." What do you make of those comments this week from her?
Medora Lee:
I would expect that from her because she was probably slightly more of a free trader. That's actually what a lot of economists have discussed too. I mean, I think Goldman Sachs raised its odds of a recession recently as well because the tariffs just seem to be so aggressive. And the ones particularly against China, were very, very high and they're our third-largest trading partner. So there's a lot of concern that that's going to spark inflation and hit household incomes and slow spending and slow economic growth. And businesses are going to be hesitant to spend money and invest in their businesses when they don't really know what's going to happen.
So I think that she's probably just echoing the chorus of economists out there who are saying the same thing. But like I said, there's also a contingency out there that says in the long term, this could be good for America and maybe Trump's right that we have to endure some short-term pain. I don't know how short-term it's going to be though, maybe a few years or more.
Taylor Wilson:
In terms of some of the things we're looking out for over the next few days, Medora, I know some of the indicators out of the corporate world are catching your eye. What's on the horizon?
Medora Lee:
So we have just kicked off earnings season and I think that a lot of people will be looking and listening to see how the companies are handling the volatility in the market, how they are handling potential price increases because of tariffs and what their outlook is.
Taylor Wilson:
It's still early this week, lots still to come I'd imagine. Medora Lee covers money and personal finance for USA TODAY. Thanks, Medora.
Medora Lee:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
The US on Friday surpassed 700 confirmed measles cases in 2025, according to figures posted by the CDC. As of Friday, the CDC reported 79 hospitalizations, including 45 patients who were under the age of five. Most measles cases, 97% occurred in unvaccinated patients or whose vaccination status is unknown. So far the agency has reported cases in two dozen states with the vast majority in Texas. In that state, two unvaccinated children with no underlying health conditions have died, including an 8-year-old girl.
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The federal government has announced it's freezing more than $2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the school rejected the Trump administration's demands to implement a mask ban and eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The announcement came yesterday hours after the Ivy League school said it would not comply with a list of demands made by the Trump administration to change its practices, marking the most high profile pushback so far against Trump's efforts to overhaul the nation's prestigious higher education institutions.
The administration had demanded that Harvard eliminate DEI programs, ban masks worn to conceal protesters' identities, and take other steps including major changes to programs and departments that fuel what it calls anti-Semitic harassment. The proposed changes are tied to continued federal funding.
Trump has been threatening the funds of leading universities if they don't comply with his demands, including Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, and Columbia. The government last week canceled $400 million in funding for Columbia and threatened to withhold billions more accusing the university of not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism and to ensure student safety amid last year's Gaza encampment campus protests. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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President Trump is targeting museums he says push divisive ideology. Activists and historians say he's trying to erase the nation's tarnished history. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry for more. Deborah, always a treat having you on. How are you today?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
I'm fine, thank you. Thank you for having me. Always good to chat with you.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for making the time. So I just want to start here. I think it's helpful for folks who maybe haven't gotten a chance to go to D.C., and go to this museum, what is D.C.'s African American History Museum?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
The museum, which opened in 2016 to a lot of fanfare, I mean there were thousands who showed up for the opening, it had been in the makings for decades. Many people had pushed to have this museum. And what it does, for the most part, it tells the story, it shares the stories of African Americans or their African American experience here in the United States.
And that means it tells the story of when Africans were transported or taken or brought here and mostly enslaved. It tells the story of Southern life, it tells the story of culture, it tells the story of athletes. It tells a little bit of everything, both the joys and sometimes the horrors and tragedies of the experience here.
And for the most part it has over the years collected artifacts and other important milestones and pieces from across the country. And all kind of compiled in this place where you can go and see for the most part what it is African Americans have gone through in this country.
Taylor Wilson:
And I know, Deborah, you spoke with a teacher for this piece who said he's had students in tears during trips to the museum and that it's just overall left a really powerful impression. What else did he say and what's the significance, I guess, of this museum for how his students learn about African American history?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
For this particular teacher, his name is Adam Sanchez, and he was teaching at a school up in New York and he was teaching a lot of history classes. That's his specialty. And he was teaching everything from the Civil Rights to the Reconstruction and things about the Black experience. But what he thought and what he said turned out to be true is that going to a museum that has artifacts, that tells that story in a different way, would kind of bring the history alive.
So he thought it was important to take them there and he did. He was taken aback about how moved they were by seeing artifacts, everything from Harriet Tubman's shawl to shackles to slave cabins, all those kinds of things that they heard about, read about, but now they could actually see. He said that really touched and moved a lot of the students.
Taylor Wilson:
Absolutely. So fast-forward to this moment and President Donald Trump in his second term, Deborah, what has he said about the future of museums like the African American History Museum?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Well, he had the executive order that he signed a couple of weeks ago, and he talked about in the executive order about kind of rewriting the history and how he basically said that some institutions, some museums had rewritten the history. Then talked about divisive narratives that he thought had been happening in the last few years and how that needed to be corrected and fixed. And in his order, he particularly singled out a couple of museums, one of them being the National African American Museum. So there's been a lot of attention to that museum because he of course singled it out. I'm talking about an exhibit there that he had an issue with.
Some conservative groups as well as President Trump, have argued that some of the institutions, not just the Smithsonian, but some of the institutions along the way have painted a not so pretty picture of the history of the country, and that they feel in some ways that it needs to be written in a way that that doesn't necessarily put the country in a bad light. So they've been pushing back on some teachings, banning some books, and other efforts like that.
Actually before even his executive order, there's been a lot of concern by activists and others and educators and teachers and students about efforts to restrict the teaching of history, particularly of Black history and other people of color. So this kind of raised even more of a red flag for some of those communities that he particularly singled out this museum, which is considered for some, a national treasure.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, and is that what you're hearing really from activists and historians, their main concern's about the possibility of Trump transforming this museum or others?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Yeah, and just to be clear, he hasn't laid out exactly what that would look like. It's not clear exactly what all that will mean, but it's enough for folks to be concerned about it. And raising alarms about whether it's not just the Smithsonian Institution, which has many museums actually that are very culture-specific, including the African American Museum as well as the Native American Museum. And there's in the works, or at least talked plans for one for the Latino community as well as one on women's.
So with all those institutions, there's some concern about them being particularly vulnerable to any changes. And what that looks like is still to be determined and how folks push back against that, that's still in the works actually. Some groups are already figuring out what we're going to do to make sure that that history is not either erased and, or in some ways diminished or in some ways tamped down, "Because who's telling the story," they say, "matters."
Taylor Wilson:
Deborah Barfield Berry is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Another great piece from you, Deborah. Thanks so much.
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
The newest class of WNBA rookies has arrived. UConn's Paige Bueckers was selected with the number one overall pick by the Dallas Wings at the 2025 WNBA draft last night, followed by Dominique Malonga of France, who went to the Seattle Storm at number two. One of the draft's big takeaways, it was a big night for overseas superstars, 3 of the top 10 picks were international. You can find more coverage including a look at the draft's biggest winners and losers from our friends at USA TODAY Sports.
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And today is tax day, the filing deadline for most Americans. Don't say we didn't warn you.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.