TRUMP TELLS BUKELE DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO AS SALVADORAN TROOPS ROLL INTO HAITI
President Trump gave Nayib Bukele a clear green light to deploy more than 2,000 Salvadoran troops into gang-controlled Haiti. After four Salvadoran aviation technicians with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force were ambushed on October 18 near Port-au-Prince and remain missing, Bukele called the White House. Trump’s reply, according to sources briefed on the call, was straightforward: “Do what you have to do.”
That is the kind of answer Americans expect from a president who prioritizes results over endless international hand-wringing. Haiti has been a failed state for years, run by armed gangs that kill, extort, and kidnap with impunity. Previous multinational efforts have poured in money and modest troop numbers with little lasting effect. Bukele is taking a different approach, one he already proved works at home.
In El Salvador, Bukele’s aggressive crackdown dismantled MS-13 and other gangs through mass arrests and military operations, turning one of the world’s most violent countries into one of the safest in the region. He is now applying the same formula abroad, and he is paying for most of it. Bukele has stated that El Salvador is covering 90 percent of the costs of the deployment. No American taxpayer check is required, and no U.S. combat troops are being sent.
Bukele addressed Haitians directly in Haitian Creole. “This is not an operation against the Haitian people, nor an invasion of Haiti,” he wrote. “We did not come to Haiti to earn money, because no one is paying us for this. We came to Haiti to fight the wicked.” He made the objectives plain: recover the four missing technicians and teach the gangs a lesson. Earlier he warned the gang leaders, “We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too.”
Haiti’s government has approved the bilateral arrangement. The troops are on the ground to locate the missing men and to push back against the criminal groups that have made normal life impossible for ordinary Haitians. Trump’s public comments reinforced the same message. He noted that Bukele faces a serious problem in Haiti where some of his people were killed, then added that Bukele runs his own country and must do what he has to do. When asked about U.S. assistance, Trump said Bukele does not need help and is in good shape.
This is America First in practice. Strong allies who can handle their own problems, and neighboring crises, receive political support without open-ended American military commitments or blank checks. Soft diplomacy and under-resourced missions have failed Haiti for decades. A leader who has already crushed gangs at home, operating with the consent of the host government and the explicit approval of the American president, offers a harder path that may actually change the facts on the ground
The gangs chose to ambush and seize Salvadoran personnel. Bukele’s response, backed by Trump’s “do what you have to do,” is the opposite of the cautious, endless process that has defined too many past interventions. Whether the mission recovers the four technicians and degrades the gangs remains to be seen, but the principle is clear: decisive force against criminals, paid for by those willing to use it, with American support limited to a green light rather than a blank check.