Trump Touts Seemingly Doctored Photo of Abrego Garcia's Hand in Attempt To Prove Maryland Man Is Gang Member

[EarlG]

30. Lots of unpacking to do here -- here's what I think happened

Last edited Sat Apr 19, 2025, 12:53 PM - Edit history (1)

The characters “MS13” have 100% been added to the photograph. That is simply not in question. However, I don’t think they’ve been added for the reason everyone thinks.

To my eye — someone who has used Photoshop for 25 years at this point — the addition is way too obvious — I think the letters have been added to suggest that the marijuana leaf stands for “M”, the smiley face stands for “S”, the cross stands for “1” and the skull stands for “3”. In others words, they’re saying “marijuana smiley face cross skull” is code for “MS13”.

BUT that sounds pretty dumb, so they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too. The image has been Photoshopped in such a way that it could easily fool people who don’t look closely into thinking those characters are part of the tattoo. That’s been done on purpose too. If they’d wanted to, they could have made it much clearer that they’re saying the tattoos represent the characters. Instead, they’ve Photoshopped it in a way that will be deliberately confusing to a lot of people.

In other words this is classic Trump/MAGA behavior — make up a blatantly obvious lie, but give yourself just enough wiggle room so that when you are called on it, you can say “Duh, that’s obviously not what we meant” and then accuse your accusers of being stupid.

Meanwhile the doctored photo continues to make its way around the internet, fooling people who can’t tell it’s Photoshopped into thinking that the dude really does have the letters “MS13” tattooed on his hand.

These people really are garbage. Is there even any evidence that that is a picture of Abrego Garcia’s hand, and not somebody else?