How Trump Brought Home a Murderer
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Characteristic of this administration’s over-the-top but never-thought-out immigration enforcement, Trump traded more than 250 Venezuelans who had been deported to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison for 10 Americans who were being held prisoner in Venezuela—including a man convicted of a triple homicide.
Guest: Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis.
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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:33.0 | Ah, Benny's parents, thanks for coming. |
| 0:34.7 | Hiya. |
| 0:35.4 | So, Benny has really blossomed this term. |
| 0:57.9 | You're telling me, he outgrew his bike. We sold it on eBay. Oh, that's not quite what I meant. It's free to sell on there. Free to sell? Easy too. Sold Benny's bike, your guitar, my jacket. You sold my guitar? Shall we talk about Benny? When it's this easy to sell for free, you can't help but say you on it's eBay. Things people love. T's and Cs apply, exclusive vehicles. |
| 1:06.2 | It was a classic Summer Friday news dump. This time last month, several outlets started reporting that the United States government |
| 1:14.8 | had planes in the air. |
| 1:16.6 | There was a massive prisoner swap underway. |
| 1:20.5 | More than 250 Venezuelan migrants who had been sent from the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador |
| 1:27.0 | were being freed in exchange for 10 American citizens and permanent residents |
| 1:32.0 | who were imprisoned in Venezuela. |
| 1:34.7 | People read about or saw or heard in some way about this prisoner exchange |
| 1:39.9 | that resulted in the release of these men to Venezuela |
| 1:42.7 | and think in some sense that that is the |
| 1:46.5 | end of this story. |
... |
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