US President Donald Trump refused to believe that a Photoshopped image of a wrongly deported man was fake, and argued with a reporter who fact-checked him during an interview.
Trump was recently criticised over his response to ABC News' Terry Moran when he spoke with him to mark his first 100 days in office earlier this week.
The POTUS, who has been receiving backlash for wrongly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man and father-of-one who was accidentally sent to El Salvador, spoke about the case…but got one thing very wrong.
Advert
Abrego Garcia was deported in March due to an 'administrative error'. He is a union sheet metal apprentice, and was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accusing him of having a 'prominent role in MS-13'.
MS-13 is a criminal gang that began in the 80s to protect Salvadoran immigrants from Los Angeles criminal gangs, and the president is deporting those who are believed to be affiliated.
However, Abrego Garcia's attorney shared that the man is not involved with the group, and this led to the Trump administration to admit that his deportation was an 'administrative error', with a lower court judge giving Trump's team a 'deadline' to have Abrego Garcia returned safe.
Advert
A Supreme Court official later blocked the lower court's deadline order, which now means that the administration no longer has to return him to his family.
Now, Trump and Moran spoke about this, and the president maintained that Abrego Carcia was not an innocent man and referred to an alleged 'MS-13' tattoo on his hand.
A Photoshopped image of a tattoo, to be exact.
The image in question shows Abrego Garcia’s left hand with four tattoos on his knuckles: a cannabis leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull.
Advert
The photo, which Trump previously shared to his own social media page on Truth Social, showed graphics which were added to explain that the symbols were believed to be a code for ‘MS-13’ at the White House.
During the interview, Trump suggested that the characters the characters of the gang were part of Abrego Garcia's real tattoo and not typed onto the image.
“He said he wasn’t a member of a gang, and then they looked and on his knuckles he had MS-13,” Trump told Moran.
Advert
“He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way, but let’s move on,” the anchor said.
"Hey, Terry. Terry, Terry. Don't do that... It says M-S-1-3," said Trump.
“He did not have the letter ‘MS-13,’” Moran responded. "That was Photoshopped."
The president responded hotly: "That was Photoshopped? Terry, you can't do that... hey, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you're doing the interview.
Advert
"I picked you because frankly I never heard of you, but that's okay... Terry, you're not being very nice."
Moran clarified that Abrego Garcia had tattoos that could 'be interpreted that way' but Trump insisted: “No, no. He had 'M-S,' as clear as you can be. Not interpreted. This is why people no longer believe the news, because it’s fake news... You do such a disservice. Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does,’ and you know, go on to something else?”
"When he was photographed in El Salvador, they aren't there. But let's just go on," said Moran, who then suggested to the president that they 'agree to disagree'.
On Truth Social, Trump posted the image with the letters above the man’s knuckles and claimed: "This is the man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, that the Courts are trying to save from being deported?
"He was supposed to be, according to the Judge and the Democrats, a wonderful father from Maryland, but then they noticed he had 'MS-13' tattooed onto his knuckles (and lots of really bad stories about his past!). This is the gang that is, perhaps, the worst of them all. What is wrong with our Country?"
Tyla previously reached out to the White House for comment.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Social Media, US News
Britt Jones