this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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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."

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's nice to see Trump can learn and grow. It wasn't that long ago when he would have just scribbled it with a sharpie. Anyway, it must really annoy Trump that thanks to Senator Van Hollen's visit, where he proved he could do what Trump admitted that he himself could not, we now have unadulterated photos of Garcia's hand without the shitty photoshop.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Ok, so what happened here is that police added letters to the photo explaining what each symbol means. Some idiots on twitter thought those added letters are the claimed MS-13 tattoo. It's not clear if Trump also thought that those letters were actually tattooed, probably yes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Marijuana= M smiley = S Cross= 1 Skull = 3

Thats what the printed texts above each knuckle represents. These dumb people claiming it has poor photoshop... Has something loose in their head

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Bruh. So they went from M to S to 1 to 3? Instead of A to B to C … to 1 to 2 to 3?

No. Don’t try to muddy the waters and spread more supposition as fact. Trump has already been proven to alter images to fit his own internal incorrect narrative, just look at that hurricane path incident from his last term. All evidence and common sense points to someone digitally editing this picture in order to fabricate support for this man’s illegal deportation.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

I really have to think at this point there's some really heinous shit they're doing while everyone hyperfocuses on this. It's the only logical reason they'd keep up the charade after it's been proven it's absolute fucking bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Even if. Have these people never heard of “ex gang members” I know a guy with gang tattoos who left the gang life 20 years ago. Should he suffer now because of his tattoos?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

Well lets see, is he brown?

[–] [email protected] 76 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

At this point, the guy could be a rabid neonazi pedophile for all I care: he should still not have been deported without a trial. People are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. Do your fucking job.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why would a cop get deported?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

That's trump you're thinking of

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So umm.... What's the problem? Return. Prove it in a court of law. Due process for all. It doesn't matter who the person is or what they've done. What matters is how the government acts.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The problem is that they are trying to do away with due process. They want to be able to throw anyone they want into a gulag in another country where they will disappear forever. They start with immigrants, claiming that they are gang members and terrorists. They are refusing to prove it because they want to set the precedent that they do not need to prove their claims. They start with alleged foreign gang members, then will come "homegrowns," as Trump has called them.

If we don't make them prove their claims now in a court of law, it'll be that much harder to do it later, and they know it.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Can someone make a photo of trump holding up a photo of himself with a MS-13 tatoo, plz?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Even if that's real, which doesn't look like it, what's keeping them from forcing Mr. Garcia onto a chair, hold him down, while they tattoo it?

This administration and their dictator allies have shown to have no constraints, no guardrails, time and time again. Consistently. You can always blindly trust them to bs and lie their way through anything.

You gonna tell me people who tried to stage Mr. Garcia sipping some Margaritas by a hotel pool wouldn't stoop so low as to place fake tattoos on him? Yeah, that's the thing with dishonesty - even if you tell the truth once it's still gonna be called into question. The boy who cried wolf, and all that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Oh my god that looks so fake. The MS13 is so to clean and clear.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Does the shadow in the belly button match the shadow cast by the hand? Does he have an "outie"? Caveat: I'm not a Photoshop sleuth

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They couldn't use AI to doctor the image because everyone would instantly see the 7 fingers and laugh.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s more like Microsoft Paint…it doesn’t even look slightly real. That’s if it even is his hand.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

It's his hand. You can find other angles of it in the same article. It seems to me that the ms-13 edited onto his digits is meant to be a translation of the symbology of his tattoos:

Marijuana leaf = M

Smiley face = S

Cross = 1

Skull = 3

Is that an accurate representation of what his tattoos mean? I have no idea, I'm not an expert on gang symbology. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. The presence of a gang tattoo is something that could be submitted as evidence in court - which is a right the accused was never afforded.

What I am sure of, is that trump intentionally presented this information in such a vague manner so as to muddy the waters so he can come back later and claim his claims were misrepresented by the "lying, dishonest media" - which is itself dishonest.

It's an inkblot test. His detractors will take the claim at face value, and his supporters will dig in and claim we're stupid for not immediately taking his claims as gospel. He doesn't care if his claims hold up in court. He only cares about the court of public opinion, and right now, he's defining that conversation.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Is that an accurate representation of what his tattoos mean? I have no idea, I’m not an expert on gang symbology.

I'm not an expert either, but I'm from another country. Does the gang speak English? If it's an Ecuadorian gang, why would they use English abbreviations in their symbol language? It seems natural for them to use Spanish. :)

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Why does "Cross = 1, Skull = 3"? I did my best to google it but every result is comments from posts made within the last day.

What I did find was this quote in https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-posts-image-kilmar-abrego-175852020.html :

"The four symbols – “Marijuana,” “Smiley,” “Cross” and “Skull” – have not been found in any law enforcement guidelines or manuals to stand in for MS-13 gang identification."

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

There is nothing supporting it, MS-13 members tend to be pretty unafraid to get just MS-13 tatted on their bodies

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I have no idea why. But I'm sure trump's DOJ will be releasing new guidelines shortly that back up what their boss is saying, sans any provable evidence.

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