Meanings
proper noun
- A 2025 controversy where the Salvadoran government provided Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Chris Van Hollen with margaritas and claimed that they consumed them.
Van Hollen referred to the stagecraft with a term that had ricocheted around social media for much of the day: “Margaritagate.”
2025 April 18, Meg Kinnard, “US senator’s El Salvador trip to see deportee Abrego Garcia dubbed ‘margaritagate’, a presidential deception he said”, in Stuff
Origin
From margarita + -gate. Coined by American politician Chris Van Hollen.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
Margaritagate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Margaritagate
MLA
“Margaritagate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Margaritagate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Margaritagate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Margaritagate.
Source: Margaritagate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.