El Salvadoran president has advice for Trump and a spiritual insight into his triumph over MS-13

Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, 42, who was re-elected earlier this year with over 83% of the vote. Interested in possible lessons for the U.S., Carlson pressed Bukele about his successful transformation of the Latin American country from a blood-soaked gangland into the second-safest country in the Western Hemisphere.

While the two discussed possible replicable successes that the United States could benefit from as well as God's role in MS-13's defeat, the Salvadoran president also obliged Carlson in providing former President Donald Trump with some advice in light of the Republican's recent conviction before a Democratic judge in a Democratic enclave on charges brought by a Democratic prosecutor.

Self-congratulatory losers

"What advice would you give to another former democratically elected leader seeking office who is facing jail time?" asked Carlson.

After a pregnant pause, Carlson added, "Anyone, just if there was such a person."

"If there was a way to stop the candidacy, then he's probably in trouble," said Bukele. "But if there's no way to stop him from competing in the election, all the things that they do to him will just give him more votes."

'They're making a huge mistake.'

"That seems to be happening," Carlson replied.

"Either you stop the candidacy or you let him be," said Bukele. "But just, you know, hitting him with — you're making the greatest campaign ever."

When pressed on whether he thinks Democrats are conscious that their efforts to imprison the presumptive Republican nominee ahead of the general election might backfire, Bukele indicated that some are likely aware, but others are ostensibly preoccupied chasing after the admiration of their peers and congratulating themselves.

"They're making a huge mistake. Huge, huge mistake," added Bukele.

The Salvadoran president's suggestion that Trump might be best served leaning into Democrats' attacks so long as the attacks do not preclude him from competing in the election was far from the only insight he shared with Carlson.

To replicate a 'miracle'

Early in the interview, Carlson asked, "If you can fix El Salvador, what are the lessons for the rest of us? What did you do first?"

'Once you achieve peace, you can struggle for all the other things.'

"You cannot do anything if you do not have peace. Right. And when I say peace, I include wars, civil wars, invasion, crime," said the president. "Once you achieve peace, you can struggle for all the other things."

Blaze News previously reported that there were 51 homicides per 100,000 in 2018, the year prior to Bukele's election. Under his leadership, the homicide rate fell to 7.8, such that El Salvador witnessed fewer homicides that year (495) than were reported in Democrat-run Chicago during the same period (695). Reuters indicated that crime dropped again last year by an estimated 70%, leaving the country with a murder rate of 2.4 per every 100,000.

The former "murder capital of the world" claimed earlier this month that the rate in 2024 presently now sits at two homicides per every 100,000. While Canada long had the lowest murder rate in the Americas, its rate has alternatively climbed every year from 2018 to 2022, such that it is poised to lose the top spot to El Salvador if it has not already.

To bring about the peace he referenced in his conversation with Carlson, Bukele's administration waged war on terroristic gangs, cracked down on some civil rights, and tossed 1% of the adult population in jail, citing proven and alleged gang affiliations.

"I can tell you the official formula [for busting the gangs] and the real formula," Bukele told Carlson. "So the official formula is that we did a plan ... that was comprised of phases. So we rolled out the first phase and then the next one, then the next one. And then gangs started attacking back, so we had to roll out everything at once."

Bukele noted that the accelerated crackdown prompted by the gangs' counteroffensive ultimately worked.

"In a couple of weeks the country was transformed because the gangs were not yet arrested but they were on the run," said the president. "We basically pacified the country in a couple of weeks."

To successfully execute each phase, Bukele indicated he doubled the size of the army and equipped it to effectively combat the gangs.

While effective strategy and force of arms were apparently the official formula for success, Bukele indicated the unofficial formula was prayer.

'Victory was because we won the spiritual war.'

"It's a miracle," said Bukele. "When gangs started attacking us back, basically, they killed 87 people in three days, which for a country of 6 million people is crazy."

Bukele said that this bloodletting made clear that the defeat of 70,000 gangsters, clearly willing to inflict maximum damage on the country's 6 million citizens, was an "impossible task."

The president told Carlson that at the time, he met with his security Cabinet and said, "We are looking into an impossible mission here, so we pray."

Sure enough, everyone present — all apparently believers — apparently asked God for wisdom, for minimal civilian casualties, and for support in their battle against MS-13, which Bukele underscored is a "satanic" gang.

"Victory was because we won the spiritual war," concluded Bukele. "Because [we] didn't have competition. I mean, they were satanic. I think that made it easier."

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