Trump’s gilded Oval Office was the perfect setting for his and Bukele’s grotesque spectacle | Julia Carrie Wong

The president's penchant for the gaudy has been mocked but the menace beneath was clear when he met El Salvador's leader

The Oval Office meeting of Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele on Monday was a grotesque spectacle. Both men, elected to lead nominally democratic countries, have described themselves as dictators, and they exuded that sense of smug impunity. While reporters sought answers on the fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father of three who was wrongly deported to El Salvador's notorious Cecot mega-prison, Trump and Bukele disclaimed responsibility, joked about further deportations, and engaged in casual slander of Abrego Garcia, who is not, and has never been alleged to be, a terrorist.

And then there was the gold. So much gold.