Wednesday, April 23

As the chorus of calls for President Donald Trump’s administration to return wrongly removed Kilmar Abrego García to the U.S. grows louder, it exposes a key weakness in one of the president’s favorite tactics: disinformation. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: Trump targets New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

As always, thanks for reading. 

— Matt Cohen, Senior Reporter

How the Kilmar Abrego García Case Exposes the Weakness of Trump’s Favorite Tactic

Ever since the government arrested and accidentally imprisoned Kilmar Abrego García to El Salvador, the response from the Trump administration has exposed cracks in its disinformation playbook. 

To recap: García, a sheet metal apprentice in Maryland, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on March 12 and sent to a hard labor prison in El Salvador. But Abrego García had a special immigration status — an immigration judge in 2019 had determined that he should not be sent to his home country because he could be persecuted and tortured by gangs that extorted his family. The U.S. Department of Justice even admitted in court filings that Abrego García’s imprisonment was an “administrative error.” 

Multiple courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 9-0 ruling — concluded that Abrego García shouldn’t have been removed and that the Trump administration must bring him back home. But in Trump’s world, there’s no such thing as being wrong, sorry or held responsible. As such, his playbook has been to, instead, distort reality and the truth rather than own up to mistakes.

Not only has the White House repeatedly ignored court orders to bring Abrego García back to the U.S. but it has openly mocked the calls for his return. What’s more, the Trump administration is deploying an aggressive disinformation campaign in an apparent effort to obscure the fact that it messed up by deporting and incarcerating a person in error who was legally residing in the U.S.

In several press conferences and news appearances, Trump officials have repeatedly insisted that Abrego García was an illegal alien (false), an MS-13 gang member (wrong) and that the government didn’t make a mistake when it sent him to El Salvador (a lie that contradicts the Justice Department’s own court filings). They’ve also gone so far as to blatantly misinterpret and mischaracterize the Supreme Court’s clear order to bring him back. 

Trump’s history of spinning webs of lies to never admit wrongdoing is so extensive that it has its own Wikipedia page, with nearly 700 references to back up all the examples. And while this strategy has, sadly, worked out for him in the past, I’m not so sure it’s going to hold up this time around. 

There’s already a chorus of voices in the Republican party and a larger network of influential conservatives telling Trump that his administration messed up here and it should take the L. In an interview with NBC News, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said that the administration made a mistake. "Look, this was a screw-up in my opinion," Kennedy said. "The administration won't admit it. But this was a screw-up." Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) tweeted about "preserving checks and balances" when he shared a Wall Street Journal editorial warning that defying the courts on Abrego García "isn't worth the political cost for [Trump] or the country."

Even right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan, who’s been a big supporter of Trump, had harsh words about Abrego García’s removal and the larger effort of transferring Venezuelan migrants without any shred of due process. 

At this point, I don’t know what will happen with Abrego García. After Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) held a visit with him last week — which has led to four more congressional Democrats traveling to El Salvador to demand his release — the pressure for the Trump administration to bring him back is only going to grow stronger. And I think it won’t dissipate until Abrego García is back in the country. 

But the question on my mind isn’t so much if Trump will bring Abrego García back, but how will he spin it so he doesn’t have to admit any wrongdoing?

Trump Goes After Letitia James

When Trump returned to the White House, he vowed to go after his political enemies — a promise that, while completely deranged, is one he’s making good on. And his latest target is someone who has worked to hold him accountable for a handful of his numerous alleged criminal endeavors: New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Last week, a top housing official in the Trump administration urged the DOJ to open a criminal investigation into James for alleged bank fraud, for becoming a co-borrower on the mortgage loan for a house in Norfolk, Va. that her niece purchased. 

U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte claimed in his letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that James falsely listed the house in Virginia as her primary residence, which he said was an effort to avoid paying higher interest rates — a move that would constitute fraud. 

James has long been at the top of Trump’s list of political enemies ever since she won a $454 million judgment against him last year, in a lawsuit claiming that the Trump Organization lied about the value of its assets on financial statements given to banks. Over the years, Trump has had no shortage of unkind words for James and it was only a matter of time before his administration went after her. 

The problem is, of course, this effort feels like the Trump administration scraping the bottom of the barrel to go after her. 

James’ office was quick to respond to the allegations that Pulte outlined in his letter to Bondi, according to the Associated Press. Her office provided a partial copy of the loan application that shows where she checked off a box that says she doesn’t plan to occupy the property as her primary residence.

“Donald Trump’s weaponization of the federal government continues to careen out of control – and now they are using cherry-picked information to attack the Attorney General,” her office said in a statement.

Something like bank fraud — especially misrepresenting your primary residence on a loan application — doesn’t need a deep investigation to figure out. Compare what’s on the form to where James actually lives, and where her niece — who she co-signed the application for — lives. If James committed actual fraud, there wouldn’t be a big media blitz by the Trump administration announcing the opening of an investigation— they would likely just move forward with charges based on the evidence gathered. By announcing it this way, the administration can tarnish James’ image without actually having to follow through with anything. It knows that the right-wing media ecosystem will pick up on every single thing the Trump administration puts out. In fact, it has already run with the false story that James committed fraud. 

"Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution,” her office said. “She will not be intimidated by bullies — no matter who they are.”