Congressman Ritchie Torres said it very well: “If a superpower were intent on engineering its own decline, it would antagonize its allies, paralyze its economy with the certainty of uncertainty, erode confidence in the world’s reserve currency, discard due process, defund medical and scientific research, sabotage the most critical form of critical manufacturing – domestic chipmaking – and grow its deficit until debt service devours the largest share of its budget. That is the story of America, circa 2025.”

Such a superpower would also be controlled by a dictator who believed himself above the nation’s court system. We are looking at many examples of Trump ignoring the courts, while pledging fealty to them. That is another example of a country’s decline – for its dictator to fool the people by convincing them that he is following the law, when in fact he is paying no attention to it.

Two of the most striking examples today are, I think, (1) the failure of the government to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States from the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, and (2) the failure to allow an Associated Press reporter into the Oval Office yesterday for the press conference with Trump and the president of El Salvador.

The second is the easier to discuss. The Trump administration kicked AP out of the White House press pool because it refused to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a criminal refusal to be sure. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the administration to immediately readmit the AP to the press pool. The government has appealed the order (which has not been stayed) and there is a hearing of some sort scheduled for Thursday at the U.S. Court of Appeals to deterimine if the order should be put on hold until the case finally plays itself out.

Notwithstanding the current validity of the McFadden order, and the president’s statement that he always follows what the courts say, the AP is still being excluded.

As to the situation Mr. Abrego finds himself in, things are either murky or perfectly clear. Mr. Abrego, a native of El Salvador who has been living in Maryland for 14 years, and never been accused or convicted of criminal activity, was subject of a United States immigration judge’s order in 2019 that he could not be sent to El Salvador. According to the government’s attorney in the case before the District Court, the government had no explanation as to why Abrego was arrested and sent to El Salvador, and deemed it a mistake. The DOJ has put this attorney on “administrative leave”, saying he did not support the government’s position vigorously enough.

Yesterday, during his White House visit, the president of El Salvador said that it was ridiculous to think that Abrego would be returned to this country, and equally ridiculous to think that they would let him (a “terrorist”) free in El Salvador. Again, he has never been accused, much less convicted, or any crime. In 2019, a county sheriff, I believe, said they had evidence he was an M-13 member of a New York group. He has never lived in New York.

Trump (and his henchman Rubio) says: well, if El Salvador won’t return him, we can do nothing about it, and neither can the courts, but if El Salvador decides to return him, we will make sure he gets back here safely.

It is obvious, is it not, that Trump has not asked El Salvador to return Abrego to the U.S.? If he did, of course El Salvador would say “sure”. Why would they rather keep him in prison, rather than let him leave the country? If Trump thinks he can tell Zelensky, Putin, the President of Iran, Xi, and Netanyahu what they can do, you would think that he could tell President Bukele what to do. Especially since we have some sort of arrangement to send prisoners to CECOT for which we are paying El Salvador.

But do we have a contract with the country? Any written agreement? Where is the money coming from? Are these people going to stay in prison forever? No one seems to know the answer to any of these questions.

And, of course, a lot of this is based on the definition of the Supreme Court’s word “facilitate”, rather than the original District Court’s “effectuate”. What does facilitate really mean? And if the president of El Salvador says he does not want to “smuggle” him into the U.S., doesn’t the president at least have to request his return as part of “facilitating”?

One more thing. Finally, there is Harvard. Harvard has now lost $2 billion in federal funds because it has refused to bow to Trump’s determination that he should be able to tell Harvard whom to hire and what to teach. Google the letter sent by Harvard President Garber yesterday to the Harvard Community. It is hard to argue with what he said.

That’s all for right now. We are back in DC after one more long drive yesterday. Highlights? A very good onion omelet at the Galaxy Diner in Bridgeport CT, a drive down the Grand Concourse in the Bronx and both Lexington Ave and 5th Ave in Manhattan,  and an Adana chicken kabob at the Brooklyn Kabob in a Muslim shopping area near the Verrazano Bridge.

In Manhattan, we wanted to see how the congestion tolls were working out.

Now, yoi see.