Trump and Bukele Manage a Massive Prisoner Swap

Holy SMOKES.

I don’t think anyone saw this coming.

Bukele just posted this.

Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TDA). Many of them face multiple charges of murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes.

As was offered to the Venezuelan… pic.twitter.com/teuIT4GiRT

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 18, 2025

…As was offered to the Venezuelan regime back in April, we carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages.

These individuals are now en route to El Salvador, where they will make a brief stop before continuing their journey home.

This operation is the result of months of negotiations with a tyrannical regime that had long refused to release one of its most valuable bargaining chips: its hostages.

However, thanks to the tireless efforts of many officials from both the United States and El Salvador, and above all, thanks to Almighty God, it was achieved.

In this, as in other matters, I remind you: patience and trust.

Seriously – holy smokes.

More than 200 Venezuelan immigrants whom the Trump administration had sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador have been flown to Venezuela.

The move, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said in a post on X, was part of a prisoner swap in which the Venezuelan government agreed to release “a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners … as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages” in exchange for the Venezuelan nationals who had been detained in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.

In a post of his own, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Thanks to @POTUS’s leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom.

Ten Americans held in Venezuela are now on their way home.

And here come the sour grapes.

…Responding to reporting from Reuters earlier Friday about the prisoner swap agreement, the ACLU said in a statement, “We were not informed in advance and don’t know the details but assuming the rumors are true, the government allowed these individuals to languish in a notorious gulag for more than four months with zero due process and with this latest maneuver appears to be trying to avoid all court rulings.”

I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have notified the press about the negotiations.

…Citing privacy concerns, US officials have so far declined to publicly identify any of the US nationals released as part of the deal.

CBS, the BBC’s US partner, has reported that one of them is former Navy Seal Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, who was detained in Venezuela last year while on a personal trip.

…The official added that the complicated deal was “down to the wire”, and was only confirmed to reporters once the aircraft carrying the US nationals left Venezuelan airspace on Friday afternoon.

“We’re dealing with a regime in which there is always a degree of uncertainty on their side, and a degree of uncertainty on our side,” the official said. “At the end of the day, everything worked out, everything is fine and everyone is safely on their way to be reunited with their loved ones.”

And it has to be absolutely killing the media that not a single word of this had leaked in advance.

Again, another Trump operation goes off flawlessly without a word filtering out to the fourth estate.

Oh, that is just delicious.

Which makes this performative theater by Democrats all the more hilarious today of all days.

Wow, truly inspiring stuff — the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has become a massive inspiration for American liberals.

Because obviously, without him protecting his constituents from gang members, who knows where the creative arts would be? Probably still stuck in a… https://t.co/0fLiV2POtb pic.twitter.com/ieGYiPdkoW

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) July 18, 2025

Bukele’s rubbing salt in the wounds, too.

Hope it stings like hell.

Hahahahaha

You know, I once thought the news were real. https://t.co/qgfcotHJgO

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 18, 2025

No doubt another Maryland Man glad to be back with his Venezuelan homies.

Liberals – “but the tren de aragua are all just gay autistic barber makeup artists and model fathers that just happen to have tattoos!!”

— Lady P | evilest era🗡️ (@petit_og) July 18, 2025

This is some wild stuff. What a good start to the weekend.