30 years ago, I was in Costa Rica working at the foundation that Oscar Arias founded with his Nobel Peace Prize money. It was my first paid job in this field (if $800 per month, minus my $400 in student loan payments, counts as “paid.”)

By vindictively revoking his visa, the Trump administration just did “don Óscar” a favor, raising his profile again at age 84. He held a news conference about it yesterday, covered by the New York Times and other outlets.

“I don’t know why they have revoked my visa,” Mr. Arias said at the news conference. “I don’t know if the revoking of my visa is some sort of punishment, because I say what I think.”

Mr. Arias has been critical of the Trump administration on social media. In February, he wrote on Facebook that Mr. Trump behaved like “a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do.”

“If someone wants to punish me in the hopes of silencing me, that isn’t going to work,” Mr. Arias said on Tuesday. He said that he did not have plans to travel to the United States, and did not provide information about what kind of visa he had and when it was set to expire.