Trump, Bukele find common cause on trans sports ban and border crackdown

President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele share common ground on banning biological men from women’s sports – underscoring the growing alignment between their administrations as they coordinate efforts to curb illegal immigration to the U.S.

“Do you allow men to play in women’s sports? Do you allow men to box your women?” Trump asked Bukele from the Oval Office on Monday. Trump’s comments came after discussing immigration and implementing “common sense” policies. 

“That’s violence,” Bukele said in response.

“That’s abusive… but we have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women’s sports,” Trump said. 

STATE DEPT UPGRADES TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR EL SALVADOR, CONSIDERED SAFER THAN FRANCE, OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Bukele then said that despite previous efforts to advance women’s rights and prevent abuse, new efforts would “backtrack” on these initiatives and perpetuate violence against women instead. 

“I think those laws were great because there were a lot of men abusing women, but now some of the same people are trying to backtrack and actually trying to make new laws allowing men to abuse women, as in sports,” Bukele said. “So actually, that doesn’t make sense.”

Trump signed an executive order in February barring those assigned male at birth from competing in women’s sports, titled, “No Men in Women’s Sports.” The order bans those assigned male at birth from using women’s restrooms and orders the Department of Education to spearhead investigations into cases of possible violations. 

In response, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that it would follow the guidance and permit only those assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports.

“The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement in February. 

The exchange is one of several emphasizing common ground between Trump and Bukele. The two are partnering to address illegal immigration in the U.S. after the two countries agreed on a $6 million deal to deport hundreds of U.S. deportees to a detention facility in El Salvador this year. 

Both Trump administration officials and Bukele agreed that they didn’t have the authority to return a Maryland resident, Abrego Garcia, to the U.S. who was deported to El Salvador in an “administrative error” by the Trump administration. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court upheld last week a lower court’s order that “requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

While Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters that El Salvador would call the final shots on whether it would return the Maryland resident, Bukele said it was “preposterous” for El Salvador to do so. 

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the U.S.? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele said.

Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.