Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, wanted his meeting with the mistakenly deported Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to “look like he was in paradise.”

The Maryland senator made the rounds on Sunday morning news shows and described his meeting with Abrego Garcia, which he managed to secure in El Salvador this past week after his initial efforts were rejected and he was denied entry to the prison.

“I think at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have… this person who had been absconded from America, from the streets of Maryland, in one of their prisons and not able to communicate,” Van Hollen said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”

“So, I ended up getting a call saying, ‘we will bring him to your hotel,’ and that's how we met,” he added.

Van Hollen said Salvadoran officials initially wanted to hold the meeting by the swimming pool at the hotel, but they negotiated those terms.

“The Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise. They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool originally,” Van Hollen said.

“We had to negotiate that,” he added. “They wanted to put me right overlooking the pool. In fact, if you had a different angle on the camera shot, you would see the pool.”

Karl asked whether the senator thinks he “walk[ed] into a trap,” noting Abrego Garcia was brought in civilian clothes and Salvadoran authorities, during the meeting, even brought the two men margarita glasses, which Van Hollen noted they did not touch.

“No, it wasn't a trap,” Van Hollen said. “My goal was to meet with him and make sure I could tell his wife and family he was okay. That was my goal. And I achieved that goal.”