John Plunkett

2 weeks ago | thepoke.com | John Plunkett

Extraordinary scenes in the White House when Donald Trump entertained – and we really do mean entertained – the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele who has been described as the ‘world’s coolest dictator’ (and probably explains why Trump likes him so much). And surely the most extraordinary moment was when Trump, already enthusiastically sending hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gag members to a notorious prison facility in El Salvador, said he’d be sending ‘homegrown criminals’ there as well.

2 weeks ago | thepoke.com | John Plunkett

You’ll probably be familiar now with JD Vance’s most unfortunate trophy fail after he welcomed Ohio State’s triumphant football team to the White House, only for this to happen. The CFP National Championship Trophy falls apart as VP JD Vance tries to hold it aloft at the White House.

2 weeks ago | thepoke.com | John Plunkett

Okay so it’s very much not the most important thing that came out of El Salvador president Nayib Bukele’s visit to the White House on Monday, but it was satisfying nonetheless. My vote for tweet of the day. pic.twitter.com/G9yEnQeyL7— John Oberlin (@OMGno2trump) April 14, 2025Here is Bukele meeting Trump, where the pair said they had no intention of returning an American man wrongly deported to a Salvadorian mega-prison.

2 weeks ago | thepoke.com | John Plunkett

We are big fans of CNN’s estimable Kaitlan Collins, who has done as much as anyone – probably more – to attempt to hold Donald Trump to account since his return to the White House. And never has she done it more importantly than this, after the US Supreme Court ordered the White House to return a man wrongly deported to El Salvador, an order which Trump and his administration appear determined not just to ignore but to entirely misrepresent.

2 weeks ago | thepoke.com | John Plunkett

You probably already have a very good idea of where Donald Trump stands on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is the president who called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ and then said it was a ‘mistake’ when Vladimir Putin’s missiles killed at least 34 people in a Ukrainian city on Palm Sunday. Except it turns out Trump still has the capacity to surprise, and this exchange about the war was a jaw-dropper of the highest order (and a sign of what is surely, terrifyingly, to come).