“Today’s Outrage” is a new feature. Since January 20, outrages at the federal level have been coming so thick and fast that trying to absorb them has been like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. We thought we’d try to slow things down, and focus on one at a time. We’re not worried about running out of material.
1: Kilmar Abrego Garcia
This one has been running since March. Here’s some background from the New York Times:
When Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant, was arrested while looking for work at a Home Depot in Maryland in 2019, a judge determined that he should not be deported to his homeland because he might face danger there. [A gang trying to extort his mother’s food business had threatened Kilmar’s life.] The ruling, known as a “withholding from removal” order, meant that he could stay in the United States with a measure of legal protection.
In March [2025], however, he was suddenly pulled over by federal agents who accused him of being a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and inaccurately told him that his protected status in the country had changed. Within three days, he was on a plane with other migrants to a prison in El Salvador called CECOT, which is known for its human rights violations. 2
After Mr. Abrego Garcia’s family sued the government seeking his return, several Trump administration officials — including the United States solicitor general — made a rare admission: The White House had made a mistake when it deported Mr. Abrego Garcia.
Well, we all know what should happen now, right? The government should apologize and bring this man home. The current president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is a fawning admirer of President Trump, and would do virtually anything to please him. If Trump said the word, Kilmar would be on the next plane back to Maryland.
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia? He works in construction, and is currently an apprentice in a sheet metal workers union. He has never been charged with or convicted of a crime, either in the United States or El Salvador. He is married to a U.S. citizen, with whom he is raising one biological child and two stepchildren. The “withholding from removal” order means that he was in the United States entirely legally.
At various times, Trump Administration officials have accused him of being a member of MS-13, but, as a federal judge noted, “The ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived.”
On April 16th, the Department of Homeland Security brought forward a document saying that in 2021, Kilmar’s wife asked for a restraining order against him. His wife has responded that as a survivor of domestic violence in a previous relationship, she asked for the order “out of caution” during a difficult time in the marriage, which she says has improved greatly since then. She is leading the fight to bring Kilmar back.
What’s going on? Why is the Trump Administration doubling down on this? Why is the administration defying court orders, including one from the Supreme Court, to bring Kilmar home? If you had mistakenly sent a young man into a hellhole, wouldn’t you want to try to fix it? Why don’t these people just do the right thing, and let this man, and this family, get on with their lives?
We can offer a few possible explanations. One is that this is an administration allergic to admitting mistakes. Donald Trump, famously, tells those around him never to apologize, because it makes you look weak. We would argue, instead, that it makes you look human, because, to state the obvious, humans make mistakes. If you have character, when you make a mistake, you admit it, and then you do what you can to make things right. When someone refuses to do this, it’s troubling.
The Department of Homeland Security recently sent an email to a 58-year-old Connecticut doctor, Lisa Anderson, who was born in Pennsylvania, which began, “It is time for you to leave the United States.” At first she thought it was spam, but it turned out to be genuine. Lisa Anderson has no connection with immigration; she is a U.S. citizen who has not been accused of any crime. Somehow her gmail address just ended up on somebody’s list. Elon Musk and DOGE have been tearing through federal agencies, firing staffers and spreading chaos, and people working under such conditions will make more than their share of errors. Agencies like the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service are now even more understaffed than usual. What will a federal agency do if it makes a mistake about you? Dig in on its deletion of your Social Security number? Refuse to restore your erroneously-cancelled benefits? Ship you to CECOT?
We suspect that another factor in Kilmar’s case, though not in Lisa Anderson’s, is a promise the administration wants to keep, one of the few they truly care about, because it stirs the emotions of their base. During the campaign, Donald Trump promised his supporters the largest deportation in American history. Because court hearings take time, such numbers would be hard to achieve if the administration followed due process. Thus, what federal officers seem to be doing, in Kilmar’s case and quite a few others, is scooping up people with brown skin and non-European-sounding names, and deporting them whether they’re here legally or not. The courts are evaded and ignored. We would argue this is because Trump believes that what his supporters really want, deep down, is for him to make America whiter. Which is hard to do within the law.
The last factor, we would suggest, is that if you acknowledge the rule of law, you accept limits on your wishes. This seems to run counter to Trump’s nature. Tony Schwartz, who ghost-wrote The Art of the Deal, followed Trump around for six months in the 1980s, listening in on hundreds of his phone calls, and sitting in on dozens of his meetings. According to Schwartz, whenever anyone told Trump he couldn’t have something, he would become extraordinarily ominous and menacing. No one was, or is, allowed to say no to him.
This includes women: hence the 26 who have accused him of sexual assault. It includes the voters: hence his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. And now, we’re finding, it includes the law. By temperament, Donald Trump is a person who refuses to acknowledge any authority – or, for that matter, any purpose – higher than himself. Most people like that end up in prison. But Donald Trump was born rich, which has allowed him to get away with a lot. He is now the president of the United States, which allows him to get away with more. He believes that the Supreme Court has told him he is immune to legal consequences. So he will push, and push, and push, against any force which tries to compel him to do anything, including let an innocent man out of prison.
Donald Trump will never get enough. Any concession will only stoke his desire for further concessions, because what he wants is not Possession A, or Achievement B, but to bend others to his will. As law firms, universities, and any number of other national and international institutions have learned in recent weeks, he cannot be appeased. Hopefully the courts, and we the people, will learn the same lesson – soon. He is one man, and we are a nation of 330 million. He can’t do anything we don’t let him do.