Summary
Trump reportedly held up a digitally altered image of the hand of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported by the Trump administration, in an attempt to prove Garcia is a gang member.
Trump can be seen holding a printed-out photo… demonstrating that “MS-13” is tattooed across his knuckles.
“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back,” Trump posted. However, many have pointed out that the image appears photoshopped.
“MS-13 looks like it was typed on the photo.” “Needing to have a photo doctored… is definitely something a psychopath would do.”
It kind of looks like annotation to imply that the symbols actually on his hand mean MS-13, but I’d easily believe Trump is dumb enough to think he has “M S 1 3” printed in Arial font on his fingers.
If it is an annotation…show us those court records, you fascist son of a bitch.
It’s so obvious that the letters and numbers are there to show what the tattooed symbols represent. I feel like I’m in bizarro world that people don’t understand that and think they’ve found some smoking gun.
It doesn’t change the need for due process, but come on people.
Trump’s own words indicated that he thought the MS13 tattoos were on the knuckles, which is where the Arial font characters are. So either Trump doesn’t know what a knuckle is, or he was speaking imprecisely, or he’s a fucking moron, or all of the above.
In any case, as someone pointed out above, it’s unlikely MS13 would be working with acronyms in English for their tattoos, especially acronyms in English that only 50% work because Marijuana Smiley Cross Skull says MSCS, not MS13.
“Knuckle tattoo” is the common term for tattoos on the back of the fingers like that.
You don’t think Marijuana is an English word, do you?
Smile is sonrisa in Spanish, also…
The skull is still a puzzler though.
So, in Spanish you get MSCC? Still makes no sense as an acronym.
But others of this gang don’t have cryptic tattoos, so where are they getting this meaning from? Not to mention a quick search of MS13 tattoos does not show this.
Yeah, the story should have been, “Trump comes up with another distraction to avoid admitting he’s violating the Constitution,” or at least, “Trump too stupid to understand a picture and says stupid thing.”
Yeah, that seems obvious to me too. I’ve got no clue how the symbols are supposed to represent the letters though. I’ve a friend who has similar symbols on her fingers and they don’t stand for anything, they just look cool.
It starts off plausible:
M=Marijuana
S=Smiley
But then it gets stupid:
1=Cross?
3=Skull???
The explanation I read is that skull is cranéo in spanish - “cranium” - which would give us C = 3rd letter of the alphabet. The jury is still out on the cross, but perhaps “god is number one” or something. Never mind that actual MS-13 members have no qualms about tattooing the actual letters all over their bodies instead of elaborate ciphers…
None of this matters though, focus should be kept on the right to due process. They can smear him all they want, it doesn’t change the facts.
That really just sounds like working backwards from a conclusion to me.
The problem is, that’s even dumber. No matter how you twist it, the whole thing falls apart at the skull. Mind you, even the others are already a massive stretch.
Ultimately I think you’re right, but on the other hand, do your really expect Mr Weather Map Sharpie to not try to pass off dumb blatant lies?
It looks like people believe the M S 1 3 annotations are what they are saying is on his hand. We’re in some dire straits.
The annotations are bullshit tho
How so? Marijuana, Smile are pretty clear, the cross you can see in place of 1 on other MS13 tattoos (using image search of MS13 tattoos).
The only one I’m not sure of is the skull, but the available image is a bit blurry. Maybe the 2 eye holes plus the nose hole?
All the MS13 tattoos I’ve ever seen online are straight up “MS13”. Admittedly, I’m not an expert in gang affiliated tattoo cyphers.
1 isn’t really a cross, but I guess if you really stretch it?
But the skull also has a mouth. That’s 4.
This guy is obviously a member of MS14 and that’s one worse than MS13, to the camps with 'em!
How the tattoos I see they are pretty proud to be part of MS13 and actually have that tatooed not some BS cryptic message. Got any examples or these kind being used. Here is a hand tattoo https://na11.campaigns.federalbank.co.in/current/ms13-tattoo
I don’t think all of the gang members being deported from the US are wearing the tattoos so boldly. They probably had to be a bit more subtle than that in the US than in Venezuela or El Salvador (before last year).
Look at these 5 guys from 2023 https://www.foxnews.com/us/five-suspected-ms-13-gang-members-us-illegally-charged-murder-death-maryland-15-year-old
Or these three from 2018: https://www.foxnews.com/us/3-ms-13-gang-members-who-took-turns-shooting-suspected-rival-sentenced-to-prison-for-murder
Or all of these ones from 2021: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/06/illegal-alien-ms-13-gang-members-indicted-for-murders-kidnappings/
It’s going to be hard to find subtle versions of the tattoos with image search since they all give the same results of blatant face tattoos.
Yeah, they think that the evidence is the annotations and ignore them as being annotations as a bad faith argument.
Do the symbols on his knuckles means “MS13”? That is up for debate without supporting evidence from those who have relevant knowledge and authority on the subject, which DHS has not validated as of yet but the arresting officers in a 2019 incident when he was arrested with two others that were also “MS13 affiliated” by the local PD; if that was out of authority or guilt by proximity is up for debate.
Is it plausible that a gang member has coded tattoos? Absolutely because gangs do use symbols to code like white power people use 1488 and similar. To be fair members of MS13 and similar tend to be more blatant with their tattoos, but it may offer a tactical advantage to be more obtuse in tattoos depending on the individual’s role in the organization. So him not having “MS13” tattooed on his face is not necessary absolute proof that he is unaffiliated.
He was alleged to be affiliated to MS13 by an informant, who is advantaged by lying financially and legally. $100 bucks can make a guy busted for drug trafficking say anything to avoid the consequences of his actions.
His wife censors his tattoos in her calls for his return, which implies she knows the tattoos are a optics problem and she has also avoided admitting or denying any past gang affiliation. Not damning, but draw enough points and you can draw a line.
Could he have been a victim of circumstances and has a checkered past due to where he grew up and has been trying to reform himself and be a decent, honest, and lawful person? Absolutely, but his traffick stop in 2022 sure is questionable.
At the end of the day he was here illegally and two judges have decided he was at one time an MS13 member based on the information available to them, which is greater than we are privileged to.
You can disagree with deporting him because a prior administration decided he should not be immediately be deported, but administrations change and so can the decisions of a prior administration with a new administration.
How he is treated in his home country is a concern, but that is a concern of his family and the people of El Salvador who advocate on behalf of the imprisoned, not the American government because he is not a naturalized citizen.
From what I read his parents owned a store that started getting extorted, which is why he fled El Salvador originally at 16 to live with relatives in the US. Whether he is or was in a gang or not in a gang is completely irrelevant to the fact that people have a right to due process. Maybe he does deserve to be deported, but what has been done to him is not a deportation. Also a changing administration does not have any relevance to the court decision allowing him to live in the US, unless you’re suggesting the rule of law ended too? Until a judge says otherwise, he can not legally be deported to El Salvador. What has been done to him is a crime.
NOEM v. ABREGO GARCIA is pretty clear.
Actually, at the time he was kidnapped he was a legal resident and the administration had court orders specifically not to send him to El Salvador. Anything anyone tries to say about his tattoos, one way or another, is completely irrelevant nonsense and attempting to defend the administration’s actions against him is a moral evil.
Removed by mod
There are literally annotations under the symbols.
Marijuana, Smile, Cross