Notes on the tragic country trashed by our big fat president.

I arrived in El Salvador to attend a family wedding last week, just days before President Trump tweeted about this “shithole country,” depicting it as a danger to and a drain on American society.  

MS-13 gang members are being removed by our Great ICE and Border Patrol Agents by the thousands, but these killers come back in from El Salvador, and through Mexico, like water. El Salvador just takes our money, and Mexico must help MORE with this problem. We need The Wall!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 23, 2018

In fact, El Salvador is a tragic country, a victim of American brutality and amnesia, as well as a beneficiary of and contributor to American prosperity. It is a beautiful, depressing, dangerous, and delightful place. The difference between hellish image and complex reality is the story of this small country on the Pacific Coast of Central America.