A legal architect of Guantanamo questions Trump’s El Salvador plan

Enlarge this image President Donald Trump met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images The U.S. has sent people it has detained — people it calls terrorists — to a prison overseas — indefinitely. This is true in 2025, after the Trump administration deported at least 261 foreign nationals to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. And it was also true in 2001, following the attacks of Sept. 11, after the U.S. government announced a plan to house captured Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the military prison at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During the George W. Bush administration, John Yoo wrote the legal justification for the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, now widely referred to as “the torture memos.” Sponsor Message Yoo argues that there are key legal differences between what the Bush administration did – and what the Trump administration is attempting in El Salvador. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [email protected]. This episode was produced by Connor Donevan, with reporting from Eyder Peralta. It was edited by Patrick Jarenwattananon. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.