The Trump slave trade has begun. Most people missed it. Or they’ve been covering it with their Eyes Wide Shut. It is puzzling, to be sure. While media outlets trip over one another to chase culture wars and partisan theater, they’re ignoring something far more sinister. The deals being done between Donald Trump and El Salvador’s leader, Nayib Bukele, embraces one of humanity’s worst horrors: slave trading.
This isn’t a metaphor. It is happening explicitly. And it’s being done openly, cynically, and – perhaps most dangerously – without anyone in power even trying to stop it.
Trump “Loves” Idea of Enslaving Americans to Work For Him In El Salvador
Trump kicked off the first phase by deporting Salvadoran nationals back to their country of origin. In phase two, he escalated. He started sending people with no ties to El Salvador there anyway. Many couldn’t make sense of it.
Soon after, he moved into phase three. His administration now sends American citizens—or people captured on U.S. soil—to foreign prisons. There, they may end up working as slaves.
Aboard Air Force One, Trump bragged about the cheaper prison costs in El Salvador. He even said he “loves” the idea of sending Americans there.
There’s no plausible reason to believe these arrangements are formal, legal agreements. Instead, they appear to be backchannel deals – private financial arrangements between Donald Trump and Bukele – where the U.S. federal government, and by extension the American people, have become unwilling accomplices in a modern slave trade that enriches both men.
Even the most hardened racist members of the “MAGA” cult should understand that there is no evidence American taxpayers are seeing a single cent of savings or refund from this transaction. That should hurt your pride, your pocketbook, and your soul. But if you’re unable to stomach the thought of profiting from a slave trade, and you don’t want to benefit from such things, that is the appropriate constitutional basis to argue against what they are doing. The inhumane treatment of the Salvadoran prison is something the United States cannot be held responsible for necessarily. Deporting people is a certain context with a set of rules as well. But slave trading? That’s a no no.
Salvadoran Philosopher King and an American Drama Queen
Bukele brands himself a “philosopher king” in his Twitter bio, and right-wing figures in the U.S. praise him for his tough on crime stance. But when Donald Trump arranges to ship detainees – possibly including U.S. citizens – into Bukele’s nightmare penal system, what do they call that?
We used to be able to call that slave trading that is until Americans started doing it.
And Donald Trump is now, without euphemism or exaggeration, a slave trader.
He says he loves the idea. And we should believe him.
The Constitutional Lens They Want You to Forget
Yes, the human rights abuses in El Salvador’s prison system are horrifying – but that’s not where this discussion should end. In fact, it’s where it should begin.
This is a constitutional crisis: American citizens (and others captured on our soil) are being sent to foreign prison systems at the direction of a President with more financial conflicts of interest than you could throw a Bitcoin at. Through deals for which there is no congressional authorization, no judicial review, and no democratic process – Donald Trump is making money personally selling human beings. And here’s the kicker: even if Trump formalized these arrangements, they would still violate the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits slavery, and the government cannot export prisoners into foreign labor systems without due process, compensation, or consent. That’s exactly the kind of abuse the Constitution exists to stop.
The Slave Trade Is American Foreign Policy Again
Let’s stop pretending this is a budgetary decision. Trump isn’t trying to save money for the American people on our prison population – he’s turning flesh into profit for himself. So if this is going to be a slave trade, then let’s make it plain: where’s the money? Who is receiving payment? What are we getting in return? And if U.S. taxpayers aren’t seeing any direct benefit from this unholy arrangement, that means Donald Trump is only pocketing the proceeds himself.
This is where satire becomes horrifying realism: if Trump is going to operate as a private slave trader using American prisoners, shouldn’t the public be getting direct compensation? Would Congress support these actions then?
Would they sign their names next to it, once they see it for what it truly is?
Or would they reject it outright – not because it’s ineffective or controversial, but because it is morally repugnant, unconstitutional, and flatly evil.
Uncivil Apathy and Cowardly Inaction
In truth, Congress could stop this today. If Trump weren’t operating in the shadows – if he had formally proposed a bill to send prisoners overseas into known slave conditions for cash or political favor – you’d expect it to be DOA.
But that’s not what’s happening.
Nobody is formally saying it.
Democrats are too blind or afraid of calling it slave trading.
Republicans are too enthralled with Trump to acknowledge what they’ve all become.
MAGA May Be A Cult, But You’re All In It
The people who have criticized “MAGA” for years, who would possibly claim they knew all of this already – didn’t. Calling Trump Hitler for the wrong things matters and outlining how his actions are unconstitutional and treasonous in such a way that has teeth also matters. Looking at this moment and saying *told ya so* is the kind of thing a lot of leftists or liberals do these days. But that isn’t helpful, and if you haven’t stopped the behavior that is dragging us to hell, you aren’t effective enough to be smug.
This is happening in part because of something worse than partisanship – it’s happening because of uncivil apathy and you; yes you reading this – are probably guilty of it. Stop blaming everybody but yourself even if you’re on the right side of history. Being right and making an impact, are two different things.
A cowardly media machine crushes us by refusing to connect the dots. A complicit political class erases centuries of progress by staying silent. But the public does the most damage—arguing through anonymous accounts on social media instead of asking whether their tax dollars are funding literal slavery—just because they first heard the argument here, on this small blog. That’s unconscionable.
If you didn’t see it before, or didn’t see it this clearly, that’s okay. Admit it. Just don’t pretend I played no role in helping you see it—right here at Write In Freedom—just because you’re too proud to acknowledge you needed help or got lost in the weeds. It happens.
If We Name It, We Can Stop It
Back to the point. This isn’t rhetoric. It’s a legal, political, and moral reality.
Donald Trump is personally engaged in slave trading with a foreign leader, using the apparatus of the U.S. federal government to funnel bodies into a prison labor system that he and his allies profit from.
There is no version of America that allow this to be.
And the only way we stop it is by naming it, demanding answers, and forcing Congress to impeach and remove Donald Trump from the Presidency:
Will the House and Senate authorize revenues from the slave trade – or will they shut it down and hold its architect accountable?
Has anybody run the numbers to see if tariffs or human trafficking would bring in more money? I’m sure Elon Musk is dying to know that.
Seriously, though, this is egregious.
Slave trading. Actual. Slave. Trading.
This has to end.
