The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador

FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.

Season 2026 Episode 3 | 54m 23s | CC

An examination of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s deal with President Trump to imprison U.S. deportees, and what each leader stood to gain. FRONTLINE and the Salvadoran news outlet El Faro, now operating in exile, investigate Bukele’s tangled history with the gangs the U.S. says it is fighting.

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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Trust with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

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