President Donald Trump spent nearly two minutes arguing that a photoshopped image was real during an interview with ABC News on Tuesday.
During a discussion about the deportation of illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump referenced a photograph of Garcia’s knuckles, which showed his real tattoos – a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull – below the letters “MS13,” which had been edited on.
While the photo attempted to make the case that the symbols on Garcia’s hand were code for “MS-13,” Trump appeared to take the edited letters literally, believing that they had also been tattooed onto Garcia’s knuckles.
“You’ll pick out one man, but even the man that you picked out, he said he wasn’t a member of a gang, and then they looked and on his knuckles he had MS-13,” said Trump during the interview.
After ABC News’ Terry Moran replied, “There’s dispute of that,” the interview devolved into an argument:
Trump: Wait a minute, he had “MS-13” on his knuckles tattooed!
Moran: He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way, but let’s move on.
Trump: Wait a minute. Hey, Terry. Terry. Terry. Don’t do that.
Moran: He did not have the letter “MS-13.”
Trump: It says “MS-13.”
Moran: That was photoshopped.
Trump: That was photoshopped? Terry, you can’t do that. They’ve given you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doing the interview. I picked you because, frankly, I had never heard of you, but that’s okay. But I picked you, Terry, but you’re not being very nice. He had “MS-13” tattooed. Terry. Terry. Do you want me to show you the picture?
Moran: I saw the picture.
Trump: And you think it was photoshopped? Well, don’t photoshop it, go look at his hand. He had “MS-13.”
Moran: He did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I’m not an expert on them.
Trump protested, “No, no. He had MS, as clear as you can be. Not interpreted. This is why people no longer believe the news because it’s fake news.”
Moran pointed out, “Well, when he was photographed in El Salvador, they aren’t there, but let’s just go on. They aren’t there in El Salvador. Take a look at the photograph.”
“They weren’t there, but they’re there now, right?” asked Trump, to which Moran replied, “No!”
Despite the back-and-forth, Trump refused to believe that the “MS-13” label had been edited onto the photo, concluding, “He’s got MS-13 on his knuckles. Okay? You do such a disservice. Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does,’ and you know, go on to something else?”
Trump held up the same edited photo of Garcia’s hand in the White House this month after Democrats protested his deportation to El Salvador, which reportedly took place due to an administrative error.
“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,'” declared Trump. “They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc.”
Photos of Garcia in El Salvador following his deportation show that while the symbols of a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull are tattooed onto his knuckle, the letters “M” and “S,” and the numbers 1 and 3 are not.