Social media users are accusing President Donald Trump of photoshopping an image he posted of a tattoo on deported dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s hand that the president argued represented the MS-13 gang.
“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,’” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Friday. “They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles.”
The post included an image of Trump holding up a photo of a man’s fist with four symbols, each accompanied by a tiny label: a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull. Above each symbol appeared the characters “M,” “S,” “1″, and “3.”
Trump has defied orders from a federal court and the Supreme Court to bring Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Maryland father of three, back to America after he was accidentally deported to a megaprison in El Salvador without due process. Trump has refused, pushing the unsubstantiated claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.
Now, online sleuths are pointing out that both the labels and the characters were digitally added to the photo Trump posted—they aren’t actually part of the tattoo. They argue that by leaving that info out, Trump was trying to mislead the public.
“Trump has posted a fake picture of Abrego Garcia’s hand where they have photoshopped letters spelling MS-13 on his upper knuckles,” wrote user @RachelBitecofer. “Here is the original. It’s spreading all over MAGA media.”
User @LindaIHiggins made a similar point, writing: “Hey Old Man, @realDonaldTrump, have someone teach you about Photoshop. This is an excellent example of altering a photo, in this case to make your illegal actions look good. But instead you look foolish.”
Trump did not say that the photo had been digitally altered. The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Some users defended Trump, arguing that it should have been obvious that the letters, which were slightly misaligned from the characters, were added to illustrate the president’s claim about what the tattoo represented.
Others, however, have questioned whether the tattoo actually represents MS-13. The president’s rationale for inferring this seemed to be that the first letters of marijuana and smiley correspond to “MS,” while the cross represents a “1″ and the skull’s three holes—two for the eyes, one for the mouth—constitute the “3.″
