Van Hollen’s El Salvador Trip and Trump’s Iran Nuclear Talks: Contrasting Priorities

The pod­cast dis­cuss­es two main top­ics: Sen­a­tor Chris Van Hollen’s trip to El Sal­vador and Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s approach to Iran nuclear nego­ti­a­tions. It crit­i­cizes Van Hollen, a Mary­land Demo­c­rat, for trav­el­ing to El Sal­vador to meet Kil­mar Abrego Gar­cia, a Sal­vado­ran cit­i­zen deport­ed by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion. Gar­cia is an MS-13 gang mem­ber and not a U.S. cit­i­zen or Mary­land res­i­dent, Van Hollen pri­or­i­tizes an “ille­gal immi­grant” over Amer­i­can vic­tims like Rachel Morin, whose moth­er, Pat­ty, met with Trump. The U.S. courts lack juris­dic­tion to order El Sal­vador to return Gar­cia and that Democ­rats ignored vic­tims like Lak­en Riley’s moth­er while advo­cat­ing for Gar­cia.

The sec­ond seg­ment focus­es on Trump’s for­eign pol­i­cy, par­tic­u­lar­ly his efforts to nego­ti­ate with Iran to pre­vent nuclear pro­lif­er­a­tion with­out resort­ing to war. The pod­cast empha­sizes Trump’s desire to avoid con­flict, con­trast­ing his approach with Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu’s push for mil­i­tary action against Iran’s nuclear sites. High­light­ing the Trump’s team, includ­ing Pete Hegseth and Tul­si Gab­bard, in stop­ping poten­tial attacks, and notes Sau­di Arabia’s Defense Min­is­ter Salman’s vis­it to Iran as part of diplo­mat­ic efforts. Trump’s ongo­ing nuclear talks, set to con­tin­ue in Rome, are dis­tinct from the Oba­ma-era JCPOA, despite media com­par­isons, and reflects Trump’s pref­er­ence for diplo­ma­cy over mil­i­tary action.

• Van Hollen fly­ers to El Sal­vador talks to any­one and every­one to sip mar­gar­i­tas with the deport­ed ille­gal. Trump met with Rachel’s moth­er, Pat­ty. Democ­rats would not stand for Lak­en Riley’s moth­er but they will fly to El Sal­vador to get an ille­gal out of prison to meet with them. He is not a cit­i­zen of the Unit­ed States. He is not a res­i­dent of Mary­land. Van Hollen doesn’t vis­it the moth­er of the woman who was mur­dered by an ille­gal. No mat­ter what the court says Gar­cia is not com­ing back to the US. US courts do not have the juris­dic­tion to tell El Sal­vador to return their cit­i­zens. And do not have the author­i­ty in for­eign pol­i­cy. 
• Trump does not sup­port war. He is nego­ti­at­ing with Iran. There was a time when we were very close friends with Iran and they were an Amer­i­can ally. We do not hate the Iran­ian peo­ple. WE don’t want Iran to put Israel down as non-exis­tent, we don’t want Iran to say they will wipe Israel off the map. On the oth­er hand we don’t want Israel to attack Iran. Trump does not want a new war to take place on his watch. BiBi has said that Iran will not have nuclear sites, so does Trump. BiBi has been push­ing Trump to strike Iran. BiBi wants an all out attack on Iran. Trump, Pete Hegseth and Tul­si Gab­bard stopped the attack on Iran. Sau­di Ara­bia defense min­is­ter Salman is in Iran who sat with Trump dur­ing his first term. Trump is in his sec­ond round of dis­cus­sions with Iran on nuclear talks. There has been a lot of talk about the JCPOA. And that Trump is doing every­thing that Oba­ma did, and it is not true. Iran nuclear talks are expect­ed to con­tin­ue Sat­ur­day in Rome. Did Trump send Sau­di Ara­bia to Tehran before the talks on Sat­ur­day? Trump says there has to be anoth­er way oth­er than war. Oba­ma, Ker­ry and the EU came up with the JCPOA. Trump got out of it. After the first nego­ti­a­tions with Iran the media ran with the idea that it is just the JCPOA with Trump’s name. Iran came to the table and it went well. It is not com­pa­ra­ble to the JCPOA, it is not an Oba­ma deal.