This Is Fascism - The U.S. is starting to resemble El Salvador's brutal regime.

When President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador eagerly volun- teered to receive 261 deportees the Trump administration had possibly illegally airlifted from the U.S. in mid-March, he instantly became one of the biggest stars in American conservative politics.

- The System: Zak Cheney-Rice

After the planes landed, disgorging alleged members of Venezuelan and Salvadoran gangs, Bukele wallpapered his X profile with shout-outs from Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr., Matt Gaetz, Senators Mike Lee and Eric Schmitt, and Libs of TikTok, among others. “Thank you to El Salvador and, in particu- lar, President Bukele,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social. When Judge James Boasberg ordered the flights carrying the deportees to return home, Bukele posted, “Oopsie … Too late,” followed by the “tears of joy” emoji.

Bukele’s social-media blitz was arranged around a slickly produced three-minute video—basically an extended commercial for his regime. Over pulsing music straight out of a SicarioPstyle organized-crime thriller, the footage captures the dramatic nighttime arrival of the deportees at a Salvadoran airport. With guards gripping their hair and the backs of their necks, the men are perp-walked down a jetway amid a small army of security personnel in helmets and body armor, then escorted as part of a militarized convoy along jungle-lined highways and through the Olympian front gates of CECOT, the largest maximum-security prison in the world.

Once they are inside, it becomes apparent how brutal the conditions will be. The new prisoners are forced to kneel inside a massive processing hangar, then ordered to shout their names for the camera before guards shave their heads. They change into white uniforms and are herded toward a series of 80-person cells where they will be locked for 23½ hours a day with overhead lights that are never turned off. “The only furniture is tiered metal bunks with no sheets, pillows, or mattresses,” CNN reported after a visit in February. The response from American conservatives to this Leni Riefenstahl–style display of authoritarian theater was sheer delight. “This is exactly what I voted for!” wrote Libs of TikTok. Schmitt described the prison as “beautiful.”