On April 15, I predicted that the President of El Salvador would agree to return Kilmar Garcia when requested to do so by President Trump. On April 16, he refused to do so. So much for my predictions.

Apparently, the person who claimed he was master of “The Art Of The Deal” couldn’t make the deal or, more likely, didn’t try to make the deal.

I’m sure this was his way of sticking it to the Federal Courts and the unanimous Supreme Court. I’m also sure that the Courts will now take that message to heart.

I have always thought that four years of Trump could not undo the 250 years of the American Experience. Now, I am not so sure.

We have a Mafia Don in the White House who revels in blackmailing universities, law firms and corporations to do what he wants. Unfortunately, too many bend.

For many years, I have maintained that Trump was the Devil and, by that, I meant the real Devil, the snake in the Garden of Eden Devil. However, I always thought that the real Devil would be a very attractive fellow who spoke in literate sentences and was always persuasive and not an illiterate character with an awful haircut.

I guess I was wrong on that.

As someone who writes opinion pieces, I feel like a kid at a Mexican party just before the time one gets to hit the piñata and the gifts fall out. As a citizen, however, I dread the morning when I get up and read the nonsense the Trump administration has teed up for the day and to which the Republicans in the Congress too often say “yes boss.”

You have to admit, however, some things border on the hilarious. For example:

GREENLAND

Leif Erickson‘s father, Erik the Red, was the first to occupy Greenland and Leif spent his boyhood there. He, of course, was the first to occupy continental North America (likely Newfoundland) approximately half a millennium before Columbus. However, Leif’s attempted settlement did not take so it was up to Columbus and others to close the deal. So, the descendants of Erik the Red are the present-day inhabitants of Greenland and they are pretty “hardy” people.

“Hardy” is a good adjective to describe people whose annual sporting event is a 26-mile sled race powered by dogs. And it is very cold and very well attended.

Usha Vance, the “Second Lady” is an accomplished lawyer who likely knows the Leif Erickson story. She is nobody’s fool. Her husband is a different matter and he can make her look foolish.

Imagine the conversation in the Vance household about a visit to Greenland.

J. D. Vance: “Usha, we need you to go to Greenland for a day or so. We need to signify our continuing interest, but in a ‘softer’ way.”

Usha Vance: “What are you talking about? Why should I go to Greenland and what do you mean by a ‘softer’ way?”

J. D.: “By ‘softer’ I just meant that we needed to waive the flag, but since you are not an elected official it will be less offensive.”

U.V. : “What in God’s name would I be doing in Greenland?”

J. D.: “I’ll get our people to figure something out.”

J. D. “Hey, it turns out that there is this traditional dog race that will be going on shortly and you could take one of the kids and watch it. I’ll get the social media people on it and it will look great.

A Short Time Later

U.V. “Great idea, J. D. The Greenlanders don’t want me; the Danes don’t want me and the dog race people have made it clear that I’m not invited to the race.”

J. D.” OK, I’ll go with you. Forget the dog race since if we tried to show up for that we would probably be booed and that won’t look good. We’ll just visit the US airbase and come home.”

U.V.: Next time you or Trump or the social media people have an idea like this, why don’t you run it by me instead of listening to those nincompoops .

The Vances spent three hours at a United States airbase in a remote part of Greenland many, many miles away from the dog race.

WON’T YOU COME HOME BILL BAILEY

It’s not Bill who’s trying to get home. It’s Kilmar Garcia who was deported “by administrative mistake” to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The Trump White House has admitted the mistake but says it is powerless to return Garcia to his home in Beltsville, Maryland because he is in El Salvador’s custody.

The Federal District Court in Maryland ordered him returned; the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and the Trump Administration filed an ”emergency appeal” to the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Pam Bondi had the gall to tell Fox News that it was pretty clear that Garcia was a member of a gang. After that interview, she did admit that his deportation was the result of an “administrative mistake.” So, what is it: gang member or administrative mistake? So much for her confirmation assurance that she would enforce the law without regard to politics.

Erez Reuveni was the Justice Department litigator handling the Garcia case. He was suspended indefinitely after admitting to the federal judge that the deportation was the result of an “administrative error.” That truthful admission was deemed “conduct prejudicial to his client.” His supervising lawyer was also placed on administrative leave. Apparently, lawyers willing to lie will now take their place.

The Trump lawyers filed an answer in the Supreme Court. The answer is as follows: “Garcia has the right to bring a habeas corpus petition in a federal court. In plain English, this means that the court can order the person to be brought before it to determine if they should be released or not. However, the Trump lawyers argue that since El Salvador has custody of Garcia and since El Salvador may not be sued in federal court, Garcia has no ability to bring a habeas petition. Years ago, Joseph Heller wrote a book called “Catch 22” and the current Trump position before the Supreme Court is a classic “Catch 22.”

“Catch-22,” in Heller’s book applied to fighter pilots who were afraid to continue flying; the fact that they were afraid indicated that they were sane and thus should continue flying. In fact, there was no way that you could not continue flying, even if you declared yourself insane. If you declared yourself insane because of the fear of flying, that meant that you were sane and, hence, you were good to go on the plane of your choice. 

Here, you have the right to sue, but there is nobody you can sue. “Catch 22.”

If Trump is correct, anybody can be removed to a foreign country and have no way to get home. You don’t have to be a gang member; you can be anyone including a United States citizen. This gives new meaning to Trump‘s call to “lock her up” directed at Hillary Clinton.

The Supreme Court took about four days to issue an unsigned order directing the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Garcia to United States. There were no dissents. However, the District Court was directed to taken into consideration the Executive’s power to conduct “foreign relations” and to delete the reference in her Order for the administration to “effectuate” Garcia’s return.

Will Garcia make it home? Maybe, maybe not. But I do think that the Chief Justice, by corralling all nine votes, including the pro Trump Justices (Alioto and Thomas), has shown a way forward . It remains to be seen whether the Federal District Judge in Maryland, who clearly has a “bit in her teeth” because of the government’s continued obfuscation, will find that way forward.

Prediction No. One:  the President of El Salvador is coming to the White House this coming week.  I think El Presidente will agree to return Garcia as a favor to President Trump.  Hence, Trump can say that his legal position was correct because it was up to El Salvador to determine whether Garcia should be returned or not.`

Prediction No. Two:  After the dust settles and Garcia is back installing sheet metal in Maryland, the Trump Administration will try to find a reason to deport him again.

DAVID BROOKS

David Brooks is a well-known columnist for the New York Times and even better known for his regular television appearances Friday evenings on PBS. Originally it was Brooks and Shields, but when Mark Shields died, it became Brooks and Capehart.

On April 15, Brooks wrote a column in the New York Times entitled “Producing Something This Stupid Is the Achievement of a Lifetime.” 90% of the column outlined the continued decline in scholastic achievement over the last 40 years. The empirical proof is unassailable. He pinpointed the principal reason for this is that people now look at “screens” rather than read or write. Apparently, one in three Americans cannot read at the level of a 10-year-old. The inability to write has been replaced by artificial intelligence and college professors uniformly say that their students are markedly inferior to the students they taught 30 or 40 years ago as they don’t read, and the writing comes not from them but from A.I.

Reading and writing helps the mind to sort out possibilities. In other words: to think.

So where has all of this brought us? Brooke’s summation is as follows:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Donald Trump’s tariff policy. I’ve covered a lot of policies over the decades, some of which I supported and some of which I opposed. But I have never seen a policy as stupid as this one. It is based on false assumptions. It rests on no coherent argument in its favor. It relies on no empirical evidence. It has almost no experts on its side — from left, right or center. It is jumble-headedness exemplified. Trump himself personifies stupidity’s essential feature — self-satisfaction, an inability to recognize the flaws in your thinking. And of course, when the approach led to absolutely predictable mayhem, Trump, lacking any coherent plan, backtracked, flip-flopped, responding impulsively to the pressures of the moment as his team struggled to keep up. Producing something this stupid is not the work of a day; it is the achievement of a lifetime — relying on decades of incuriosity, decades of not cracking a book, decades of being impervious to evidence.